Research-Should-Benefit-Humanity,-Shibli-Faraz

By Our Conviction, Islam Is A Way Of Life. Islam Sets Food Standards For Humanity. Corruption Is Not Halal, said Mr. Shibli Faraz.

By Our Conviction, Islam Is A Way Of Life. Islam Sets Food Standards For Humanity. Corruption Is Not Halal, Halal Means Doing Things In Lawful Manner, said Mr. Shibli Faraz, Minister for Science and Technology while addressing 3-day COMSTECH training course on “How to establish Halal testing laboratory”, here on Tuesday, at COMSTECH Auditorium.

He said rather focusing on going international, focus on ensuring healthy food quality. Labs should have capacity to determine Halal and Haram with the focus on complete food value chain. The Minister encouraged all Halal industry related institutions to develop mechanism for increasing capacities and advised that universities should be part of this as well.

Mr. Faraz highlighted the way forward for research by mentioning that there is a huge gap between research done in the past in Pakistan and its application. He emphasized that research should bring benefit to the people of Pakistan and the entire humanity. He said that research should yield to patent and then be commercialized.

Prof. Dr. Iqbal Choudhary, Coordinator General COMTECH said that Halal accreditation and certification is a niche in which we can achieve excellence.  He said that Halal business is growing over 20% and there are no major Halal certification bodies in Muslim countries. Dr. Choudhary said that we at COMSTECH are focused on science based commercialization and developing capacity in OIC member states focusing on the application of science research output. He said that the theme of today’s event is relevant to industrial development of Pakistan and OIC.

Secretary General, The Standards and Metrology Institute for Islamic Countries (SMIIC), Turkey, Mr. İhsan ÖVÜT, said that we need to develop common standards with the commitment to practice them to compete internationally.

The inaugural session was addressed by Ms. Ismat Gul Khattak, Director General, Pakistan National Accreditation Council, Mr. Akhtar A. Bughio, Director General, Pakistan Halal Authority, and Prof. Dr. Syed Ghulam Musharraf, Professor, Dr. Panjwani Center for Molecular Medicine and Drug Research, ICCBS, Karachi. The inaugural session was attended by 800 participants online and 80 people participated in-person. This 3-day event will end on Thursday, June 10.