ISLAMABAD: `Pakistanis behind the rest of the region in research and development. This is not because of lack of expertise but due to lack of political will,` the Science and Technology (S&T) Ministry Secretary said.

The secretary was addressing the National Assembly Standing Committee on Science and Technology and expressed hope that the government would make a larger allocation of funds in the next fiscal year for the Ministry of S&T so that research and development can be improved.

The participants of the meeting were disappointed to find out that no research is taking place in any department of the S&T Ministry since 2007 because of lack of funding.

Committee Chair PML-N MNA Chaudhry Bashir Cheema did not share the secretary`s optimism and expressed displeasure over the S&T Minister`s absence from the session.

`This is the fourth meeting and the minister is not concerned enough to attend when the future of research departments is at stake,` he said.

PPPP MNA Nauman Islam Shaikh shared the committee chair`s pessimism and said, `It is unlikely that the government will allocate sufficient funds to boost research. These 15 disciplines should be permitted to generate revenue through their own resources.

The meeting had been specifically called to discuss problems faced by the Pakistan Council of Renewable Energy Technologies (PCRET) due to insufficient funds.

The participants of the meeting were informed that with sufficient funding the PCRET could help resolve the country`s energy shortfall by tapping into energy resources such as wind and solar power.

`But we cannot deliver with Rs5 million which was given to us in response to our demand for over Rs30 million. Close to Rs20 million were diverted towards payment of the electricity bill,` the PCRET Director General Dr Suhail Zaki Faroogi said. `If the government invests in biomass alone, Pakistan can meet the 6, 000 MW energy shortfall and save $15 billion a year,` Dr Faroogi said.

He said it is time Pakistan invested in renewable technology like the rest of the world and reduce dependence on conventional resources such as expensive and environmentally hazardous fossil fuels.

S&T Secretary Kamran Qureshi told the committee that Israel spent 4.5 percent on research and development, the highest in the world followed by Korea, Japan and the USA.

Mr Qureshi said `All the experts in my office left ten years ago for better job opportunities outside Pakistan. Other countries are making the best of Pakistani manpower and benefiting from it.

Chaudhry Tariq Bashir Cheema said that more than anything else S&T Minister Rana Tanveer Hussains was in the best position to convince Planning and Development of the importance of R&D in the country and receive funding for it.