Senate body appreciates HIT achievements, projects   

ISLAMABAD: Senate Standing Committee on Defence Production in its meeting on Thursday appreciated the achievements and projects of Heavy Industries Taxila (HIT) and recommended that the budget disbursement process to HIT might be made smoother and quicker to achieve more viability and fast pace of work.

The meeting was held under the Chairmanship of Senator Lt. Gen. (R) Abdul Qayyum here at the Parliament House.

The Committee was given a detailed and comprehensive briefing by Brig. Nauman about the ongoing and completed projects of HIT, the budget allocation to it , capacity enhancement for commercial inland sales and exports and future vision of the Heavy Industries.

Chairman of the Committee while terming Al-Khalid Tank pride of the nation praised the proposal of bringing an upgraded and progressive model Al-Khalid-2 in the industry to compete with constantly developing weaponry. The Committee was told that the HIT had a capacity of 50 tanks per year but they were making 18 tanks on average due to budgetary constraints.

The Committee strongly recommended that the allocation of budget to defence production industries should come directly to ministry of defence production from the finance division.

He observed that the Committee would push for this proposal on its own but HIT also needed to take the matter up regularly.

The Committee was told that HIT was not entitled to commercial activity on its own. It can only carry out commercial activities from the surplus capacity after fulfilling all kinds of defence needs of armed forces.

The Committee lauded the efforts of HIT and observed that defence production establishments in Pakistan had made tremendous contributions not only by equipping our armed forces but also by undertaking commercial sales. Equipping our armed forces with tanks, and state-of-the-art ammunitions not only means colossal savings but also promotes self-reliance, Senator Lt. Gen. (R) Abdul Qayyum stated.

The Committee advised the HIT leadership to do capacity building of their vendors, ensure coordination inter and intra defence production institutions and create a reserve pool of skilled work forces to meet sporadic demands.