National standards the pathway to development

Standards are a basic requirement for product development. Considering their importance, Pakistan Standards Institution (PSI) was established in the year 1951 at Karachi, the capital city at that time. We started off well. In the early fifties most institutions were formed to steer the industrial growth of the nation. The new republic was gearing up to emerge as the first Asian Tiger but then calamity struck in October 1958.

The constitution was abrogated. Nation-building was replaced with empires which seriously hampered the growth of institutions. PSI was unable to provide the much-needed national Standards.

Finally, in 1996, an ordinance was passed by the National Assembly for the formation of Pakistan Standards & Quality Control Authority (PSQCA) by merger of two federal state institutions (PSI, Central Testing Laboratories). Armed with testing laboratories it was expected that PSQCA will be able to provide standards for the domestic market.

In the year 2002, I was offered the position of Director General (DG) PSQCA. With my vast industrial experience and a leading Quality Management specialist, I was uniquely qualified for this role. Unfortunately, the city of Karachi was under mob control at that time. After the shifting of the federal capital to Islamabad, head offices of most organizations were moved out of the metropolis.

Effective running of institutions was almost impossible under the prevailing lawlessness in the city at that time. Those who tried were assassinated. Hakim Mohammad Said of Hamdard, Shaukat Mirza of PSO, Shahid Hamid of KESC were all gunned down during this period. Before taking charge of the position, I travelled to Islamabad with a request to move the head-office of the newly formed entity to the capital city.

As always, the bureaucracy is slow to move. I was instructed to assume office and then start the transfer process which I refused. Finally, after twenty years in 2022, PSQCA office was moved to Islamabad. Better late than never.

PSQCA must be made more effective in standardizing our products. Testing Laboratories play an important role in this area. In Malaysia, an organization called SIRIM (Standards & Industrial Research Institute of Malaysia) was created for this purpose, which has been very productive.

SIRIM was founded by the merger of Standards Institution of Malaysia (SIM) and National Institute of Scientific and Industrial Research (NISIR) in the year 1974. A grand complex was inaugurated in 1977 which I had a chance to visit in the year 2003 as Chairman Pakistan Science Foundation (PSF). No product can enter the marketplace unless it is tested and standardised by SIRIM. Conformance to the standard is mandatory, which must be displayed on the product. It has proven to be a pathway to development for Malaysia.

PSQCA has not been as effective as it lacks the required laboratories to test and then establish the required standard. As a result, the local marketplace is inundated with sub-standard products.

Some countries have adopted foreign standards like Din of Germany, BS of Britain, ASTM of the USA, etc, to ensure conformance to a standard. Pakistan can replicate the Malaysian experience by creating a similar organization by the merger of PSQCA and PCSIR (Pakistan Council of Scientific & Industrial Research) called SIRIP (Standards and Industrial Research Institute of Pakistan). Once established SIRIP can then ensure standardization of products before they are allowed to be sold in the market. A time deadline can also be set for this transformation to take place.

Around the year 2004, Intellectual Property Organization of Pakistan (IPOP) was established by the merger of various entities. Patents were being handled by Ministry of Industries, Trademarks by Commerce, Copyright by Education; all such efforts were combined under IPOP, which has been operating since then as a single entity for protection of intellectual property.

The Islamic Republic of Pakistan has not been able to change with the times. In the words of famous poet Munir Niazi; “I am always late”. Frameworks play an effective role in industrial development. Our brothers in Malaysia and Indonesia have been successful in creating these pathways while we have lagged.

Technologically speaking, we are much ahead of these countries but due to lack of the commercial linkages we are unable to cash in on our potential. Scientific research alone is not enough unless it reaches the marketplace through application and commercialization of technology for which standards and intellectual property play an important role.

PCSIR has huge research complexes spread all over the country but due to lack of industrial linkages they have not been effective in the development of indigenous products. PSQCA relates to the marketplace but its lacks the necessary laboratory facilities to test varied products and then produce the necessary conformance standards.

The net result is dis-satisfied customers as non-standard products are being sold in the market, which do not meet their needs. Management of Technology (MoT) is Management of Change in which timing plays a pivotal role. While a poet can lament for being late, a technologist must act to keep pace with the marketplace; otherwise, he becomes obsolete.

Frameworks like SIRIP can facilitate our march towards development to enter the ranks of the Asian Tigers where we rightfully belong. The Ministry of Science & Technology (MoST) was created in the decade of the seventies for the advancement of technology in the country. While we continue to pursue science, technological advancement has been minimal mainly because of lack of pathways for which leadership of technocrats is essentially required.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2025