LAHORE: The Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC) has opposed a decision of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) declaring a diploma in technology equivalent to a bachelor’s degree in engineering.

A spokesperson for the HEC told Dawn that it was a consensus decision and 11, out of 12 participants, (eight of them were VCs, including the chairperson of VCs committee who attended along with the representatives of the PEC ) agreed to the formulation.

The PEC, however, said the decision was a sheer violation of a Supreme Court judgement issued in 2018.

The HEC’s notification states “HEC is pleased to modify the decision made in 8th Accreditation and Equivalence Committee Meeting regarding equivalence of B.Tech (Hons) with BSc (Engg)/ Bachelor of Engineering, i.e ‘both degrees of BSc (Engg)/BE Engineering and BTech (Hons) are not equivalent but could be considered at par for employment, grade, promotion, etc on their respective cadre/streams as under “Bachelor’s degree in engineering (minimum 16 years education) and bachelor’s degree in equivalent technology (minimum 16 years education) are at par for recruitment, pay scales and grades”.

The PEC, however, says it is a statutory regulatory body enacted by an Act of Parliament to regulate the engineering profession from engineering education to engineering practice.

Rejecting HEC’s decision, the PEC said it constantly conveyed to the HEC that engineering and technology qualifications are two distinct streams of the engineering profession and cannot be considered equivalent, however, could be considered on par for the purpose of recruitment, promotion, grades, etc. Both qualifications are regulated internationally through their separate accords/fora, i.e. engineering qualification by the Washington Accord, whereas, engineering technology by the Sydney Accord.

It states PEC Act-1976, Section 27(5A) states that “No person shall unless registered as a registered engineer or professional engineer, hold any post in an engineering organization where he has to perform professional engineering work.”

The PEC cites the Supreme Court of Pakistan judgement that “The government shall not allow or permit any person to perform professional engineering work as defined in PEC Act, who does not possess accredited engineering qualification from accredited engineering institution and his name is not registered as a registered engineer or professional engineer under PEC Act.”

PEC representatives also discussed and emphasised the matter in the 10th meeting of the Accreditation and Equivalence Committee of the HEC, however, its stance was not reflected in the minutes.

Consequently, the HEC decision has caused enormous confusion for the engineering fraternity, stakeholders and employers and it was taken as a violation to the PEC Act 1976 and the judgement taken by the apex court.

The council requested that the statement finalised by the HEC as reflected in the notification be rationalised with the further elaboration that both the streams/ professionals cannot be replaceable for each other, however, can have career growth in their respective domain of engineering profession and practice.

Punjab University Vice Chancellor and PEC Convener Niaz Ahmad Akhtar the HEC immediately withdraw the notification, otherwise, the PEC would file a contempt of court appeal in the Supreme Court against the HEC.

He said HEC has no right to equate an engineering degree with a non-engineering discipline and as per PEC Act-1976, the Engineering Council should regulate the engineering profession.

He said the PEC representative who represented the Council in the HEC meeting must be fixed for the negligence and the VCs of engineering universities who participated in the meeting should also clarify their position, otherwise, they should not be invited to the PEC meetings in future.

Published in Dawn, December 31st, 2021