Senate body appreciates HIT achievements, projects

ISLAMABAD, Nov 30 (APP):Senate Standing Committee on Defence Production in its meeting on Thursday appreciated
the achievements and projects of Heavy Industries Taxila (HIT) and recommended
that the budget disbursement process to HIT might be made smoother and quicker
to achieve more viability and fast pace of work.
The meeting was held under the Chairmanship of Senator Lt. Gen. (R) Abdul Qayyum
here at the Parliament House.
The Committee was given a detailed and comprehensive briefing by Brig. Nauman about
the ongoing and completed projects of HIT, the budget allocation to it , capacity enhancement for commercial inland sales and exports and future vision of the Heavy Industries.
Chairman of the Committee while terming Al-Khalid Tank pride of the nation praised the
proposal of bringing an upgraded and progressive model Al-Khalid-2 in the
industry to compete with constantly developing weaponry. The Committee was told
that the HIT had a capacity of 50 tanks per year but they were making 18 tanks
on average due to budgetary constraints.
The Committee strongly recommended that the allocation of budget to defence
production industries should come directly to ministry of defence production
from the finance division.
He observed that the Committee would push for this proposal on its own but HIT also needed to take the matter up
regularly.
The Committee was told that HIT was not entitled to commercial activity on its own.
It can only carry out commercial activities from the surplus capacity after fulfilling all kinds of defence needs of armed forces.

The Committee lauded the efforts of HIT and observed that defence production
establishments in Pakistan had made tremendous contributions not only by
equipping our armed forces but also by undertaking commercial sales. Equipping
our armed forces with tanks, and state-of-the-art ammunitions not only means
colossal savings but also promotes self-reliance, Senator Lt. Gen. (R) Abdul
Qayyum stated.
The Committee advised the HIT leadership to do capacity building of their vendors,
ensure coordination inter and intra defence production institutions and create
a reserve pool of skilled work forces to meet sporadic demands.