ISLAMABAD: A parliamentary panel on Wednesday unanimously passed the National Metrological Institute Bill, 2022.

The Senate Standing Committee on Science and Technology which met here with Senator Afnan Ullah Khan in the chair, was also attended by committee members, officers of Ministry Science and Technology, its minister Shibli Faraz and officials of National Physical and Standards Laboratory.

While reviewing the contents of the bill, the committee pointed out certain typographical errors other than that there was consensus in principal that the bill was overdue and it was a pity that it has been pending since a quarter century.

The committee was briefed that the National Physical and Standards Laboratory (NPSL) was established roughly four decades ago under Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR), through a project as a national apex body for the maintenance of primary and secondary standards of measurement and for testing and calibration of standards and equipment.

NPSL deals with the establishment of infrastructure of metrology to implement and operate a unified and coherent national measurement system as per international requirements and practices for quality assurance and management system and to support legal metrology in Pakistan. The organization also caters to a limited number of fields of metrology i.e. the science of measurements which includes mass, length, time and frequency, electrical, thermal and pressure measurements.

At present, the organization has approximately 500 clients and has introduced the bill to provide it legal cover which is a prerequisite of international trading partners of the World Trade Organization (WTO).

It had already approved the proposal for the placement of NPSL under Ministry of Science and Technology as an autonomous body in 1997 and since then has been awaiting realization.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022