Pakistan: ‘Bureaucratic hurdles hampering biotech growth’

While developing countries are making fast progress in biotechnology to benefit their growing population and strengthen economy through food exports, Pakistan lags far behind in this field mainly due to bureaucratic hurdles that have effectively scuttled efforts of local experts, many of them have developed indigenous genetically-modified (GM) varieties and wait for government support for their commercialisation.

This was one of the key points highlighted at a press conference held on Monday at the launch of ISAAA (International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications) 2015 report at Karachi University’s Latif Ebrahim Jamal National Science Information Centre. The event was organised by the Pakistan Biotechnology Information Centre (PABIC).

“Though it’s biotechnology that has sustained and met the country’s local and export cotton needs since 2009, we couldn’t take this technology to a higher level; introducing it in food crops and other industrial crops,” said director of the International Centre for Chemical and Biological Sciences Prof Mohammad Iqbal Choudhary to the website Dawn.com.

Progress in biotechnology in Pakistan, he said, was limited only to the level of research.

“A number of scientists have developed indigenous GM varieties but awaiting government support for their commercialisation,” he said.

Elaborating on the hurdles hampering biotech growth in the country, he said that confusion and lack of clarity on responsibilities assigned under devolution halted the progress made in the field of biotechnology in previous years that included enactment of the Pakistan Bio-Safety Rules 2005 and establishment of the National Biosafety Centre.

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