The government decision to make a 46 percent cut in its Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) in fiscal year 2010-11 is beginning to target areas that must not be hurt. According to a press report, the Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR), the country's premier public sector research institution, was allocated Rs 347 million for the current fiscal year, out of which it should have been handed Rs 138.8 million by now.
So far, it has received only 40 percent of the allocated money, while uncertainty prevails regarding the remainder. As a result, the PCSIR's 17 projects are in a state of suspended animation. These are all important research projects aimed at developing industrial processes based on indigenous raw materials and technologies through laboratory research as well as pilot projects.
Two near-completion pilot projects, for instance, are related to pharmaceutical and diagnostic products and a third to pesticides. Understandably, the government is in the process of adopting various austerity measures to deal with its financial constraints. But it needs to get its priorities right.
A short while ago the public sector universities were up in arms against it because of a drastic cut in their funds. Now it is an important public sector research organisation which faces trouble. These research and higher education areas, in fact, need more, not less funds. It hardly needs saying that R&D is the building block of progress and development.
Making compromises in this crucial area is not an option our policy-makers should be entertaining. Disruptions caused by unsavoury policy decisions, such as the present one can easily dishearten the scientists engaged in various research projects, and might undermine their commitment to serve this important public sector research institution.
Already, the conditions are not too encouraging. The research scientists remain mostly laboratory-bound, as a former PCSIR chairman pointed out, due to lack of up-to-date pilot projects that could help entrepreneurs assess production costs, and product viability at semi-commercial level.
If the present rate of funds release is any indication of things to come, it would be a serious blow to the important work the PCSIR is doing. The government must rethink its current policy to put a financial squeeze on educational and research organisations. In case it deems reduction in stipulated monetary allocations unavoidable, it must try and keep them minimal. But first of all, the concerned ministry must end the uncertainty surrounding the funding situation.
Secondly, it must ensure that the projects that are at an advanced stage of progress are completed. Thirdly, once the decision to support certain projects is finalised, funding must not be delayed. As noted earlier, delay causes cost overruns, and hence considerable waste of both effort and money, making the projects that much more difficult to complete.