LAHORE: The Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC) has asked the University of Engineering (UET) Lahore vice chancellor to ensure the appointment of eminent professional engineers against positions of dean/ heads of departments/ institutions of the university.

The PEC penned a letter to VC Prof Dr Mansoor Sarwar after receiving complaints of violation of the PEC Act 1976 by appointing non-engineers as heads of departments.

The letter by the Engineering Accreditation Department of PEC said Prof Amir Akhlaq, not an engineer, was appointed last month as director of the Institute of Environment Engineering and Research (IEER) .

The PEC was constituted under the PEC Act 1976 as an apex body to regulate the engineering profession in its totality (engineering & technology) and function as a key driving force for achieving rapid and sustainable growth in all national, economic and social fields.The PEC directed the UET VC to implement the Act for appointment of deans/ head of departments. “As per Article 6 of PEC Regulations for Engineering Education in Pakistan all teaching faculty of engineering (principal, dean, faculty of engineering, head of institutions, professor, associate professor, assistant professor, lecturer,) must possess engineering qualification.”

The letter states the PEC was already striving hard for appointment of engineers against engineering-related academic/ management positions in HEls for imparting quality education to students . The same are upheld by the superior courts time and again for appointment of engineers where professional engineering works are involved. A PEC official said accreditation of the environmental engineering could be cancelled if the VC did not implement the PEC Act.

Published in Dawn, December 2nd, 2022