Sarhad Provincial Conservation Strategy - IUCN

is especially critical in the dawning information age,
in which the success or failure of countries will depend
increasingly on their ability to produce and process
information and knowledge. Pakistan is no exception
to the general trend. It is not clear whether awareness
of this problem exists or will ever exist at the national
level. Regardless, however, maintaining its lead in the
environmental arena, the NWFP must strengthen its
environmental research capability without waiting for
action at the Federal level or in the other provinces.
Agriculture is an example of successful research
that is funded at fairly adequate levels, even though it
has become routine. There is nothing comparable for
industry, environment, or the social sciences. The
agriculture example needs to be extended into the
three other critical areas, while recognizing the successes
and weaknesses of that model. One major
weakness is the restriction of research to Government
organizations. These are not funded properly even
for maintenance and salary expenses. The large pool
of talent in universities, colleges, and private institutions
remains substantially untapped.
Many countries have an annual budget for
research grants, managed by organizations such as
social science research councils (as in India and the
United States), national science foundations, and
others. This means an annual research budget allocated
not to an institution, but available potentially
to any expert in selected fields. A potential problem
with such an arrangement is ensuring that it does not
become a source of patronage, and that the results
produced are of high quality. This would require that
policies and criteria for allocation be laid down by
a governing committee consisting of top experts in
selected fields, and not by a Government organization
that could be subject to political pressures.
Similarly, given the importance of social
research and its past neglect, it will be valuable to
consider the creation of an independent institute for
research in social sciences, with initial support from
the Government.
In addition, the Pakistan Council of Scientific and
Industrial Research (PCSIR) needs to be activated and
better utilized. The PCSIR has a large laboratory set
up in Peshawar. However, being a Federal entity, it
has seldom responded to provincial needs. Nor has
G O V E R N A N C E & C A P A C I T Y D E V E L O P M E N T 6
the province actively sought PCSIR support. Therefore
it will be useful to take up with the Federal
Government the transfer of PCSIR in Peshawar to
provincial control. If this is done, an effort could be
made to involve the users of research output more
directly in its supervision and operation. Similarly,
other various technical and educational institutions
can also be activated by creating pro-active research
opportunities in emerging areas of small industries,
environment, water, and agriculture.
Coordination among research institutions dealing
with environment is necessary. In Peshawar,
there are several research institutes and laboratories
involved in environmental research, but they rarely
coordinate with each other. This has resulted in the
creation of idle research capacity (equipment) and
undue duplication of work. The outcome is that environmental
research remains fragmented. Even very
basic problems such as water quality have yet to be
systematically investigated.
Therefore, environmental research in the NWFP
needs to be synchronized through a new coordination
body. An Environmental Research Board will be
established to coordinate the work of the already
existing research institutions. Such a Board, under the
management of the PE&D Department, will convene
and host meetings of the research organizations, will
synchronize their annual research plans to fill in the
research gaps, will ensure the best use of resources,
and will review the progress of research at the end of
every year. The organizations forming part of the network
will include the Sarhad Development Authority’s
Research Laboratory, Hayatabad; the Pakistan
Agricultural Research Council; the Departments of
Environment, Chemistry, Geography, and Geology at
the University of Peshawar; the Agriculture University,
Peshawar; the Environmental Engineering Department
of the Engineering University, Peshawar; the Pakistan
Medical Research Laboratories, Peshawar; the Public
Health Engineering Laboratories, Peshawar; the Food
Research Laboratories, Peshawar; the Agriculture
Research Institute, Tarnab; the Nuclear Institute for
Food and Agriculture; and the NWFP EPA,
Peshawar. The board’s mandate and procedures
shall be elaborated in consultation with the partner
research institutions.
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