Daily Times

The Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority (PSQCA) seized a total of 43 units of bottled drinking water across the country during the year 2020-2021 due to the substandard quality of water.

According to an official source, PSQCA had seized 20 units of bottled drinking water under the jurisdiction of Punjab, 12 units at Karachi, 10 at Islamabad Zone and 01 at Khyber Pakhtunkhwa during the period.

The commercial production of all those brands that were found illegal or unsafe is halted until they were found conforming (safe to consume) and fulfill all the quality requirements of the product.

PSQCA had mandate to monitor the quality of Bottled Drinking Water under SRO’s 638(I)/2001. PSQCA performs conformity assessment activities in the light of PSQCA Act VI of 1996 and as per Pakistan Conformity Assessment Rules 2011. PSQCA awards license after ascertaining quality of the product which included on site assessment, lab testing and conformance with the Pakistan Standard Specification.

There were total 136 brands of bottled drinking water that are registered with Punjab Zone and 140 brands with Karachi zone, 154 brands with Islamabad zone and 67 brands were registered with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Zone.

PSQCA ensures quality of the product through surveillance of units and testing of product. As per recent inspections conducted in year 2021, a total of nine brands were found substandard in Punjab zone, 13 in Karachi zone, four each in Islamabad zone and in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa zone.

Commercial production was halted due to non-conformance and after taking corrective and preventive action, samples were taken and sent to lab to ascertain quality of the product and are found conforming in their test report, the source said.

These registered brands were found conforming to standard as per their last test reports i.e. safe to drink. PSQCA carried out market surveillance to identify illegal or unsafe brands of bottled drinking water.

Moreover, action was also taken against those brands which were declared unsafe in PCRWR quarterly water reports and PSQCA market surveillance, the source added.

Technologies: Higher Education Commission (HEC) asked the faculty members of public and private sector universities or degree awarding institutions to submit research proposals focused on transfer of university-developed technologies and products to the industry and commercial sector under the Technology Transfer Support Fund (TTSF).

According to an official source, the TTSF would provide funds to selected institutions based upon a competitive, peer-reviewed evaluation of proposals. The budgets for TTSF awards might range between Rs. 7.5 – 15 million with a maximum project duration of two years.

Principal Investigators would be required to obtain co-financing including in-kind and/or cash contributions from the industry collaborators. Industry co-financing must equal at least 50 percent of the funding requested from HEC for the academic portion of the collaboration while greater amounts of industry co-financing were encouraged. About the applicant eligibility, the source revealed that the Principal Investigator (PI) must be a regular faculty member (PhD or FCPS/MCPS/FRCS) working on regular/contract basis (contract duration must not be less than project duration) in the Higher Education Institutions either public and private of Pakistan. The co-financing including in kind or cash contribution by the industry partner was mandatory.

The priority sectors for TTSF support included Telecommunications; Information Technology and its application in health, textile, agriculture and agri-business like dairy and horticulture; Engineering sciences, including microelectronics, water, power, energy and fleet management; biotechnology and Materials sciences, for example nano-technology.