ISLAMABAD: A Senate committee on Tuesday directed the concerned authorities to resolve a matter related to B.Tech engineers, who are having difficulty finding jobs.

The Senate Standing Committee on Education took up the issue after it was raised by Senator Mohammad Ali Khan Saif on the Senate floor.

During the meeting, chaired by Senator Dr Rukhsana Zuberi, committee members said the issue facing B.Tech diploma holders should be resolved and their qualifications given due recognition.

Senator Saif said this issue has gone unresolved for a long time while diploma holders have difficulty getting jobs because their qualification is not recognised.

Subcommittee to be briefed by stakeholders and finalise a report, with recommendations, in a month

The National Technology Council should have been set up to recognise B.Tech diplomas, which are recognised in other countries, he said.

Senator Jahanzeb Jamaldini added that there is no service structure for B.Tech engineers, while Senator Bahramand Khan Tangi said most B.Tech diploma holders belong to low-income families and their issue should be resolved on a priority basis.

The committee was informed that although this qualification was introduced in the 70s, there is still no regulatory framework to deal with technologists.

The committee was also briefed about the role of technologists and engineers.

After hearing from stakeholders, the committee decided to set up a subcommittee that will consist of senators who will be briefed by the Ministry of Federal Education, the Higher Education Commission, representatives of B.Tech diploma holders and other concerned bodies, and will finalise a report within a month with recommendations on how to resolve this issue.

B.Tech diploma holders have been protesting for years calling for their qualifications to be recognised. During a protest this march, they said that Pakistani universities are offering four-year diploma programmes that thousands of students are completing, only to head out into a bleak future.

In the absence of any legal cover, they said, the service structure for technologists has not been finalised, because of which they are not getting jobs and are becoming overage.

They have demanded that BSc technology and B.Tech honours should be treated the same as BSc engineering, in accordance with the education policy of 1973.

Earlier, the committee also discussed defamatory remarks about Pakhtuns by private publishers in textbooks, an issue raised by Senator Mushtaq Ahmed.

Senator Ahmed said that the publisher published defamatory remarks against the people of the Buner and Yousafzai tribes, demanding that the publisher and the concerned government officials be summoned to the next committee meeting to explain themselves.

Published in Dawn, August 12th, 2020