The Standing Committee on Defence Production met in the Committee Room No. 07, Parliament House, Islamabad today, the 28th August, 2017 at  11:00 a.m., under the Chairmanship of Khawaja Sohail Mansoor, MNA, on the following agenda:-
i) Confirmation of minutes of previous meeting held on 25th July, 2017.
ii) Briefing on Armament Research and Development Establishment (ARDE).

1.The Committee offered Fatiha on demise of Mr. Gulzar Khan, MNA.

2.The Committee approved/confirmed the minutes of its last meeting, which was held on 25th July, 2017.

3.The Secretary, Ministry of Defence Production briefed the Committee about the creation of Armament Research and Development Establishment (ARDE). He said that during embargoes in 1965 and 1971 wars, the authorities felt necessity to achieve self reliance in conventional munitions by developing and utilizing local industrial potential. He further stated that ARDE was established in 1974 under DGMP, MoD (Defence Production Div) to develop armaments stores for three services to achieve the goals of indigenous development of armament.

4.The Committee was informed by the representative from ARDE regarding its research, development and functions. He said that presently ARDE has engaged private industries for development purpose. He added that ARDE was interacting with academic institutions for R & D purpose.  He also briefed the Committee about its research process for different products. The Committee appreciated the role of ARDE for saving import cost through its Research and Development work.

5.Meeting was attended by Dr. Ramesh Kumar Vankwani, Chudhary Hamid Hameed, Mr. Muhammad Moeen Wattoo, Ms. Iffat Liaqat, Ms. Asiya Nasir, Mr. Bilal Rehman, Mr. Sajid Hussain Tori, MNAs besides the senior officers of the Ministry of Defence Production (MoDP) and ARDE.