Congratulations! The federal government has reportedly approved project to establish a China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) joint research centre for earth sciences in Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU). But don’t get your hopes up just yet.
A few years ago, the government had also established a certain CPEC Centre of Excellence. That institute was expected to be the research-lead in so far as the CPEC is concerned. But following two years of a stuttering start, that centre of excellence is still struggling to be the lead on CPEC research.
In 2015, the Pak China institute collaborated with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and the China Institute for Reforms and Development to set up a joint think tank called Research and Development International. And has that publicly released solid agenda setting research reports in so far as the CPEC concerned? Nope!
Even much older institutes that can help towards the CPEC aren’t faring well. The Planning Commission itself is without a chief economist for about a year now. The story of Planning Commission’s think tank, Pakistan Institute Development Institute, is also quite similar. Not only does it face a kind of existential crises, it is quite literally headless for more than six months.
The original term of its previous VC, which is also an ex-officio member of the Planning Commission, originally ended last year. He was given a three-month extension but since that extension ended, the think tank of Planning Commission has been without a VC. Sources say the final selection of PIDE’s VC was first pending long at PM’s office and is now awaiting a sign off at the president’s office for nearly a month. (See also PIDE: economics without a sense of purpose, Feb 4 2019)
This is a country that focuses more on buildings, bridges, fancy titles and setting up of new universities, research centres or think tanks without thinking why the ones built before haven’t succeeded in the first place. One can only hope that latest one at the QAU will not meet the fate of its predecessors.