Editor
The Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC) is the premier regulatory establishment for engineering in Pakistan which, as per PEC mandate, is accountable for the registration of engineers, consulting engineers, and the accreditation of engineering programmes provided by universities/establishments.
It ensures and manages persevering with skilled growth, assists the Federal Government as a Think Tank, establishes requirements for engineering services, and safeguards the curiosity of its members. Quite a handful, clearly, however is it as much as the onerous job entrusted to it in its current form?
The reply, sadly, is an enormous no, contemplating its previous and current achievements and conduct.
A regulatory establishment accountable for oversight and upkeep of prime skilled requirements of a number of dimensions is meant to have the very best expertise by way of technical competence and integrity to implement prime skilled requirements in skilled, instructional, and know-how growth domains of engineering. However, the establishment has developed into an elected physique representing particular pursuits like these of contractors and development corporations’ cliques.
Pakistan wants a PEC that takes the nation ahead by enhancing skilled engineering requirements and making ready engineers and technicians to shoulder technological tasks nationally and internationally with utmost competence.
Indian and Chinese technological growth was spearheaded by their top-class engineering and know-how establishments, however right here in Pakistan, no such initiatives have been inspired. A couple of top-class science and know-how universities like NUST, which got a constitution, additionally diversified their disciplines to incorporate enterprise administration and social sciences.
Others, just like the National University of Technology (NUTECH), as an alternative of concentrating solely on know-how levels and diplomas, diversified into engineering programmes.
Compared to the above, there are 23 IITs in India, all concentrating on particular specialties and producing world-class engineers.
Here in Pakistan, the PEC, which ought to have identified such must HEC and different policy-making authorities ministries, failed to make sure the event of specialised engineering and know-how institutes.
PEC, being the highest engineering and know-how regulator, ought to have saved possession of technological talent growth institutes as nicely since know-how and engineering are carefully interlinked. PEC abdicated that duty and let different regulatory establishments like NTC be created underneath HEC.
NTC ideally ought to have been raised underneath PEC because it has complementarities with engineering disciplines, as an alternative of making a separate regulatory establishment delinked from the apex engineering establishment of the nation.
Another egregious failure of PEC has been its incapability to implement its personal legal guidelines enacted underneath an Act of Parliament in 1976. According to these legal guidelines, all overseas engineering and development corporations desirous of endeavor initiatives in Pakistan should rent a proportion of Pakistani engineers apart from involving a sure proportion (30%) of Pakistani corporations in joint ventures.
The above was important to develop the experience of Pakistani corporations and engineers whereas engaged on specialised technological and engineering initiatives in Pakistan. An extra spinoff of this coverage was to offer employment to Pakistani engineers, who are suffering from unemployment and exploitation by the hands of contracting corporations’ mafias.
Surprisingly, the PEC gave exemption to Chinese corporations and CPEC initiatives from each the above necessities, depriving Pakistani engineers of useful challenge expertise and employment alternatives.
Why this violation of PEC’s legal guidelines was finished is a query value answering by the PEC management. PEC is meant to maintain a test on the standard of challenge growth corporations, together with their categorization based mostly on monetary, technical, and moral scrutiny by the PEC.
Over time, the standard of Pakistani corporations and contractors has declined because of the munificent licensing practices of PEC. It is value investigating how a lot affect peddling and corruption is concerned within the licensing practices of PEC.
In addition to the above, there are rumours bandied in regards to the corruption and mismanagement within the governance and administrative affairs of PEC. PEC has a bloated governing physique comprising 65 elected members, which is unwieldy but unrepresentative of a number of very important disciplines.
For occasion, the very important aerospace specialty was clubbed with telecommunications for election functions in PEC elections 2024, that means {that a} telecommunication engineer would characterize an aerospace self-discipline within the governing physique.
Then there are query marks over such numerous governing physique members whose TA/DAAs and different bills run into hundreds of thousands at the price of different substantive necessities just like the welfare of unemployed engineers.
A former member of the governing physique, Engineer Zahur Sarwar, is on document having levelled corruption allegations towards PEC, quoting a determine of fifty billion in a TV dialogue. PEC, being an important establishment, ought to submit itself to a proper audit by the federal government auditors by means of the internationally acknowledged massive 4 auditing corporations to allay such allegations of misuse of funds.
PEC ought to critically consider paring down its bloated group, together with an unwieldy governing physique of 65 members. There can be a necessity for moral and technical scrutiny of the contesting members in PEC elections, as many shady characters can get elected utilizing cash and unfair practices.
Coming over to unfair means in PEC elections, the instance of the just lately held PEC elections in August 2024 is eye-opening. Serious allegations of affect peddling by means of exorbitant spending in the course of the election marketing campaign surfaced.
Now, if the candidates for prime slots and the governing physique resort to prodigious spending to buy votes, one can think about the destiny of PEC. Lavish banquets and ads using social media and even PTCL channels have been used as stratagems to woo voters.
Big enterprise contractor mafias and vested pursuits use cash to achieve management positions in a regulatory establishment that, like HEC, needs to be assigned based mostly on technical competence and ethical rectitude.
The conduct of PEC Elections 2024 was a botched-up affair with a number of situations of ballot workplace mismanagement. Instead of correct premises with spacious infrastructure, the cramped and congested premises of NADRA workplaces have been used, the place a number of engineers couldn’t attain attributable to dense visitors or lack of parking.
The worst glitch was the downing of NADRA’s hyperlink for over 4 hours, which created confusion and the return of a number of voters who didn’t come again to vote. Apart from severe questions on NADRA’s system’s credibility, doubts have been sown in regards to the equity of the elections because of the four-hour hiatus.
PEC is much too delicate a company to be put on the mercy of vested pursuits. Serious consideration needs to be given to altering the system of selecting the PEC management from elections to nominations, similar to the HEC Chairman. Instead of a bloated governing physique, a lean co-opted physique comprising the very best and the brightest from all provinces could possibly be thought-about.
The monetary audit of the PEC needs to be carried out underneath authorities look ahead to monetary transparency, and the NTC must also be put underneath PEC for higher synergy between engineering and know-how. The nation can’t make it to the massive league of technologically superior nations with out placing the PEC proper.
The author is the Director IPRI and a former Director Works and Chief Engineer Navy. He may be reached at: rwjanj@hotmail.com
