Islamabad: Expressing strong concerns over the current system of Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC), academicians, engineering professionals, and alumni representatives have demanded urgent reforms in the structure, scope, and policies of PEC so that it can become a fair, functional, and transparent regulatory body.
Serious issues like unbalanced representation, conflict of interest, and limited scope are negatively impacting the performance of PEC. Currently, the GB of PEC has more members than the Balochistan Assembly, while global bodies like ABET (USA) have a total of only 12 members. This highlights the simplicity and effectiveness of decision-making.
The press release specifically emphasized that the scope of PEC is limited to only 20 percent of the engineering sector, while important roles like diploma holders, B.Tech honors, technologists, construction supervisors, and operators are being completely ignored.
Former Vice Chairman Government Polytechnic Students Council Engineer Iftikhar Chaudhry recalled on this occasion that in the 1970s during the Pakistan Peoples Party era, he, along with leaders like Hafeez Pirzada, got B.Tech approved and played an important role in the establishment of Government Colleges of Technology. In this historical context, not recognizing B.Tech and Diploma Engineers as engineers is not only unfair but also an obstacle to national development.
It was also clarified that:
Those who do B.Tech Honours study for one year more.
Their teachers are often PEC certified engineers themselves.
The heads of many national projects have also been Diploma Engineers.
These same people have made Pakistan famous abroad.
This issue was repeatedly raised before former Education Minister Chaudhry Shafqat Mahmood, but only verbal assurances were given. The bills pending in the Senate regarding B.Tech and Technologists should be passed immediately.
Demands:
- Separate technologist wing or council should be established in PEC under function-wise division.
- B. Tech Honours graduates should be given full engineer status.
- Diploma engineers should be recognized according to their field expertise.
- Unbalanced representation of GB should be reduced and global models should be adopted.
- Conflict of interest should be eliminated in matters like accreditation and voting.
