KARACHI: The country’s most prestigious scientific research institution in the public sector, the Pakistan Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR), has been in desperate financial straits since the federal government withdrew from it the right to spend its self-generated income on research, it emerged on Wednesday.

According to sources, the test and analysis work that has been the laboratory’s only income generating resources for decades have literally come to a standstill since March as there is no money to buy chemicals or repair equipment.

The financial crisis, they say, have not only affected current employees who were being paid salaries after months of delay but have also hit pensioners (especially in Karachi) who have not been paid a single penny by the federal government for three months.

“The PCSIR, like other public sector research institutions in the country, has been facing a monetary crunch for almost eight years as the federal government has not provided any funds for research and development projects to the institution.

“Instead of increasing funds and paying salaries in time, the government has dealt another blow to the institution by depriving it of its self-generated amount that used to help the institution pay utility bills in time, repair equipment and buy chemicals,” said a high-ranking official in the PCSIR.

He said the officials in Islamabad had been making an unrealistic demand for some time that they wanted to pay pensioners and employees from the laboratory’s meagre self-generated amount.

The institution which has been working since the 1950s has 11 laboratories and a number of human resource development centres across the country where hundreds of scientists, engineers and technologists aided by more than a thousand technical and skilled staff are working.

“It makes me sad when I see the institution in which scientists like me had invested their lives has now been reduced to a post office,” said a former PCSIR scientist.

The government decision to curtail PCSIR’s administrative powers had been taken some time back but it was actually implemented when the ministry of science and technology issued a notification in March this year to clip administrative powers of the PCSIR director general.

The letter directed officials to stop using self-generated funds collected through tests and analysis services that the institution provided to the private sector. The PCSIR earned about Rs7 million a month through these services.

“We have been asked to obtain the ministry’s approval for funds’ utilisation but the official process takes so long that we have no option but to stop our services for industrial clients,” said a researcher currently serving at the PCSIR, Karachi Laboratories.

According to him, the PCSIR laboratories are facing similar conditions though the Karachi laboratories have been affected the most since the city is home to a large number of industries that seek testing and analysis services to fulfil requirements for export and import. Besides, the PCSIR Karachi labs have extensive test and analysis facilities not available anywhere in Pakistan.

The PCSIR act, he said, allowed the director general to utilise 60pc of self-generated amount to buy necessary consumables and make repairs.

“Our clients are turning to other institutions for test and analysis that we are unable to do as the institution has run out of the material required to provide these services,” another researcher said.

No PCSIR staff member in Karachi was willing to speak officially on the matter while those in Islamabad were not available for comment.

An ISO-9000 and ISO-17025 certified institution, the PCSIR has developed more than 1,187 processes and technologies, many of which have been leased out to commercial concerns. Its 511 patents include 108 foreign patents while it has about 7,640 research publications.

Spelling out the PCSIR’s objectives, some scientists said the institution had been set up to help local industry optimise its growth leading to import substitution and export enhancement. Self-generation, however, was not its main function nor does it have a marketing department to promote its products.

“The purpose is to help the industrial sector and not to mint money which is the reason why services are provided at reasonable rates so that they do not lead to a subsequent increase in the production cost and overall price of a product,” they said, adding the present crisis had put the institution’s ISO status at stake.

According to them, PCSIR’s testing services covered almost all sciences except nuclear science. Major export products were certified by the PCSIR making them acceptable worldwide. The institution had a long list of clients in the country both in the public and private sector.

Published in Dawn, August 21st, 2014