THIS refers to the report ‘Non-engineers hold positions meant for engineers: IEP’ (Aug 23). Having completed 16 years of education, I hold a Bachelor of Technology Honours (BTech-Hons) degree. I am also registered with the National Technology Council (NTC) as a professional engineering technologist, and leading an online association called the Pakistan Engineering Technologist Community (PETC).
The BTech (Hons) degree has now been renamed by the Higher Education Commission (HEC) as ‘BSc Engineering Technology’. It is being offered both in public- and private-sector universities and degree-awarding institutions. Currently, there are hundreds of thousands of BTech (Hons) graduates both in Pakistan and abroad. The government has established a separate professional council, named the National Technology Council (NTC), for the accreditation of these degrees and for professional registration of graduates as engineering technologists.
The degree was launched by the government in 1973 and its equivalence was set on a par with BSc Engineering degree. Till 1981, both the UGC (now HEC) and the Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC) had been accepting the BTech (Hons) degree as an equivalent of BSc Engineering degree, but due to pressure built by the PEC, the authorities had to withdraw the equivalence.
The PEC subsequently closed all possible doors for the engineering technologists to apply against BPS-17 jobs and to seek admission to MSc Engineering degree programme. There have been no equal opportunities for them in the country since then.
A few government departments have allotted a small quota of 5-10 per cent or promotions from BPS-16 to 17 and from BPS 17 to 18 to the engineering technologists, but the PEC is protesting against it, calling engineering technologists to be ‘non-engineers’. The Institution of Engineers Pakistan (IEP) is an association of graduates holding BSc Engineering degrees and it is hand in glove with the PEC.
The government should establish the engineering profession regulatory authority to replace the PEC as the ‘engineering profession regulator’.
Nouman Abid Chuhan
Lahore
Published in Dawn, September 3rd, 2021