National Assembly's Standing Committee on Science and Technology met here at Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR), Ministry of Science and Technology, in the chair of MNA Sajid Mehdi.
Director Pakistan Scientific and Technological Information Centre (PASTIC) informed the committee that PASTIC is specialized organization in the field of science and technology (S&T) information handling and responsible for catering to the needs of research and development (R&D) and also for industrial community across the country.
PASTIC was established under the PCSIR in 1957 and later it was transferred under the administrative control of Pakistan Science Foundation in 1974. PASTIC provided the network of libraries and up-to-date research literatures from local and foreign sources for the research students and scientists of the country. It has created many facilities for the scientists/ research students like training, printing, composing, designing, computer training laboratories by establishing the six centers in the country.
He further informed that PASTIC was planning to develop the national S&T data center including all disciplines like social sciences, natural and applied sciences and publishing the same in statistical year's book annually for the information of the youth of the country.
The committee appreciated this and emphasized that PASTIC should publish such data and distribute to the youth through renowned universities of the country.
Director Pakistan Museum of Natural History (PMNH) was invited to explain the working and performance of the organization. He informed that PMNH was established on five acres of land in 1976 near Shakarparian, Islamabad, with four divisions like Botanical Science, Earth Science, Zoological Science and Public service. It serves global and national needs in three areas like research, conservation and informal education. He further informed about the number of national and international people who visited the museum annually and generation of revenues for national exchequer through nominal amount of ticketing.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2019