Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Senate Standing Committee on Science and Technology was informed on Wednesday that about 50 factories had been sealed for supplying poor quality drinking water in markets.

The Senate body met under the chairmanship of Senator Osman Saifullah Khan and was attended by other committee members. Federal Minister for Science and Technology Rana Tanveer Hussain briefed the body that the ministry had taken stern action against the factories selling low quality drinking water.

The officials of Ministry for Science and Technology (MoST) said they had requested the Ministry of Water and Power to convene a meeting of the stakeholders to deliberate specifically on the issue of water scarcity and conservation to farm up recommendations for submission to the Council of Common Interest (CCI).

The officials said MoST was also planning to hold an inter-ministerial meeting to take up this issue at the appropriate forum. The senate committee also unanimously adopted ‘The Pakistan Engineering Council (Amendment) Bill, 2016’. The committee also recommended the ministry to ensure compliance of its directives on COMSATS-Lancaster Dual Degree Programme within three months.

The Senate body also directed the ministry to announce exemplary punishment for the former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) National Testing Service and (NTS) and take steps to avoid such practice in future. The official informed the body that the former CEO had been terminated from his post and after the report of inquiry committee further action would be taken against him.