Injecting private sector into defence production vital for economic development, says Mushahid.

Date : August 16, 2012

Islamabad, August 16: Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed, Chairman of the Senate Defence and Defence Production Committee has said that the role of defence production is not just linked with national defence but also with promoting economic development through exports, generating jobs and promoting skills in science and technology.  He made these observations while chairing a meeting of the Senate Committee on Defence & Defence Production at the Parliament House.  The meeting, which had briefings from the heads of various defence production institutions including the Pakistan Ordinance Factories (POF), Heavy Industries Taxila (HIT), Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC), Karachi Shipyard & Engineering Works (KSEW) and National Radio Telecommunication Corporation (NRTC), had senior level representation from all the three services. The Secretary and Additional Secretary, Ministry of Defence Production, were also present on the occasion.

The marathon meeting lasted over 4 hours with detailed presentations before the Senators present from 5 difference political parties who are members of the Committee.  Senator Mushahid Hussain, while lauding the contribution of the defence production institutions in their efforts to promote and protect national defence, also took note of various bureaucratic impediments and red tap in terms of rules and regulations that served to retard professionalism and their production capacity.

On a suggestion from Senator Farhatullah Babar, the Committee passed a unanimous resolution seeking to remove these bureaucratic bottlenecks and also instructed the Board of both the POF and the HIT to immediately fill the post of a member representing the private sector in their Board.  Senator Mushahid Hussain assured that the Defence and Defence Production Committee would endeavour to implement the recommendations in a two tier process that would include passing of resolutions by the Senate Committee and then the entire Senate as a whole, and the second one would to urge the government to give full autonomy and financial independence to these institutions in accordance with their own rules to make them competitive, profit generating bodies.  The Chairman of the Defence and Defence Production Committee, Senator Mushahid Hussain also decided that there would be a joint meeting convened to include the Ministries of Defence, Defence Production and Finance to resolve these pending issues.  The Committee will also be visiting these various institutions in the last quarter of 2012.

Among the Senators attending the meeting included Chaudhry Shujat Hussain, Raja Zafarul Haq, Farhatullah Babar, Haji Adeel, Tahir Mashhadi, Sardar Ali Khan and Faisal Raza Abidi. The Secretary of the Senate Defence Committee Mr. Amjad Pervez was also present.

The defence production institutions were represented by Secretary, Ministry of Defence Production Lt. Gen. (R) Shahid Iqbal, Chairman, POF Lt. Gen. Ahsan Mahmood, Chairman, HIT Lt. Gen.Ayaz Rana , Chairman, PAC Air Marshal Sohail Gul Khan, Commodore Waleed from KSEW and Brig Zaidi from NRTC.