KARACHI: Govt apathy mars world engineering conference
KARACHI, Sept 26: The three-day Second International Mechanical Engineering Congress, organized by the Institution of Engineers, at its Karachi Centre, opened on Friday with strong criticism on the government by the local engineering community, for failing to send any of its top officials to the opening session of the event, and for non-issuance of visas to international delegates, especially to president Institution of Engineers India.
The engineering moot was organized by the IEP in collaboration with the World Federation of Engineering Organizations (WFEO), Federation of Engineering Institutions of Islamic Countries (FEIIC) and Federation of Engineering Institutions of South and Central Asia (FEISCA) and experts and heads of industrial and engineering concerns from the SAARC, as well as other neighbouring countries were supposed to attend the congress.
However, only Bangladeshi experts could manage to attend the moot and present their technical papers, while engineers invited from other countries including India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Tajikistan and some European countries failed to arrive at Karachi owing to non-issuance of visas and some other reasons.
Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad Khan was invited by the IEP as chief guest to inaugurate the congress but he nominated advisor to the Sindh chief minister, on home Affairs, Aftab Ahmed Shaikh, to represent him at the opening ceremony, who too failed to attend the congress due to his official assignments.
Speaking at the inaugural ceremony, president of the World Boxing Association, Engr Prof Khursheed Anwar Chaudhry, lashed out at the government officials for not attending the international mechanical congress, saying that it contradicted government’s tall claims about its concern for economic and industrial development of the country.
Deploring the government’s apathy towards such important event, he said that no official bothered to attend the mechanical engineering congress, expected to be attended by top engineering experts from the country as well as abroad.
He opined that encouragement of engineering community, holding of training programmes for their professional development and government’s patronage, was vital for economic and industrial development of the country and asked engineers, present on the occasion, to raise the issues confronting them before President Musharraf.
Delivering welcome speech, secretary general, IEP, Engr Ch Rashid Khan said that the IEP had signed agreements for technical cooperation and exchange of technical know-how with more than 36 engineering professional societies of the world, including Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia, China, USA, UK, Canada, besides the SAARC, Middle Eastern and the Central Asian Republics.
Some 24 technical papers will be presented in six technical sessions, titled Engineering Education, Energy Resources or Multi Disciplines, Engineering Design, Engineering Procedure, Engineering Methods and Production Conservation, during the whole moot.
The executive committee meeting of the FEISCA, scheduled to be held on Sept 27, was cancelled owing to absence of foreign delegates.
Convener of the moot, Engr Anwarul Haq Siddiqui, and IEP Secretary Engr I.H. Siddiqui, also spoke on the occasion.—PPI
KARACHI, Sept 26: The three-day Second International Mechanical Engineering Congress, organized by the Institution of Engineers, at its Karachi Centre, opened on Friday with strong criticism on the government by the local engineering community, for failing to send any of its top officials to the opening session of the event, and for non-issuance of visas to international delegates, especially to president Institution of Engineers India.
