ISLAMABAD: A parliamentary committee on Monday showed its displeasure over the performance of the Pakistan Council of Renewable Energy Technologies (PCRET).

The National Assembly Standing Committee on Science and Technology, headed by MNA Tariq Bashir Cheema, also passed the National University of Technology Bill 2017 paving the way for the establishment of the first ever technology university in the country.

The university will impart technical education to students, mainly to take benefit from opportunities arising out of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

At a meeting, the committee discussed the performance of PCRET with its members observing that the organisation had f ailed to deliver.

`What is the outcome of PCRET? I have been told that this organisation has failed to achieve any milestone,said the committee chairman, directing Secretary Ministry of Science and Technology Yasmin Masood to dig out the factors that contributed to the failure of the council. She was also directed to check the overall performanceof PCRET andfundsithadreceivedsinceitsinception 16 years ago.

The committee directed the secretary to furnish a report so that in the light of it the committee could decide the future of the organisation.

`We will see whether the council should be given the status of an autonomous body or not. We will also see whether the administrative control of the organisation could be given to Wapda or not,` the chairman observed.

The committee was surprised to know when Additional Secretary Ministry of Science and TechnologyMohammadAshrafinformeditthatPCRET had an annual budget of only Rs1 million for research while it spent around Rs110 million every year on nondevelopment expenditure such as salaries to its employees.

Earlier, MNA Sajid Ahmed said though PCRET had a state-of-the-art research lab but it was lying abandoned.

`When I visited the lab, I was told that it only operates when someone [from government] visits the facility otherwise the lab remains closed,` he said.

Dr Bager Raza, the director general of PCRET,informed the committee that the council was facing several challenges because it had no legal status. He, however, said hehad a plan to improve the ef ficiency of the organisation.

PCRET was established by merging the National Institute of Silicon Technology (NIST) and the Pakistan Council for Appropriate Technologies (PCAT) in 2001.

The organisation was supposed to be a prime institution of the country for coordinating research and development and promotional activities in different renewable energy technologies.

The committee also passed the National University of Technology Bill 2017. At its previous meeting, the committee had passed the bill and directed the Higher Education Commission (HEC) to make some minor changes in the bill. After receiving the updates to the draf t on Monday, the committee approved it.

The statement of objects and reasons of the bill moved by the minister for science and technology, stated: `It is well known fact that unavailability of well-trained human resource in the technical fields is seriously retarding our industrial growth.

The situation is accentuated by the lack of recognition and virtualnon-existence of the state or the art, higher education stream in the realm of technologies. In this backdrop, it has been conceptualised that National University of Technology be established to redress the deficiency.

The proposed university will also regulate and certify technical skill development in affiliated institutes to make it responsive to the current and future needs of the industry and prospective opportunities of fered by CPEC.