ISLAMABAD - Senate Standing Committee on Science and Technology was informed on Wednesday that feasibility study of establishing university in Prime Minster House was under process and PC-1 of the project would be prepared in one year.

The committee, which met in Parliament house under the chairmanship of Senator Mushtaq Ahmad Khan, was briefed by the officials of Ministry of Science and Technology about the establishment of the university in PM House. The committee was told that the PC-1 of the university would be prepared in one year and working had been started on the preparation of feasibility study of the project. 

They informed that Rs390 million had been allocated for the project and it would take six year in completion of the university project. They said that three centres of excellence would be built in university. The Committee Chairman said that no practical work had been done in this regard so far. 

Minister for Science and Technology Chaudhry Fawad Hussain informed the committee that Pakistan was manufacturing nothing when the first case of COVID-19 was registered in the country but now we were in position to export equipment related to COVID-19. He said we had established two new industries during COVID-19. These companies, he said, were manufacturing dialyses machines in Pakistan now. He said that introduction of Electric Vehicle Policy was no doubt a big achievement.  

Chaudhry Fawad Hussain said we were starting largest scholarship project and the government was going to allocate Rs13 billion in this regard. He said when he took charge of the Science and Technology Ministry there were no heads of different departments. But now, he said, rules had been made of different attached departments of the Science ministry after 15 years. 

The officials of Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority (PSQCA) told the committee that water samples of 23 water companies were found substandard. Units of five water companies and selling points of 18 companies had been shut down. 

Chairman Committee expressed annoyance over unsatisfactory performance of PSQCA and said it was very unfortunate that we could not do quality checking of water companies.