Economic development: PEC services must be utilised to resolve crisis: Senate panel

A parliamentary panel has advised the government to utilise Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC) by taking advantage of its services in resolving the problems being faced by the country. Senate Standing Committee on Science and Technology which held here on Thursday under the Chairmanship of Senator Mushtaq Ahmad observed that PEC was an important institution with ability to provide significant input to the government to put the country on the track of economic development through innovations.
The chairman also said it is the responsibility of PEC to assist the government through provision of workable suggestions regarding energy and water crisis, construction of dams and construction of 5 million homes. The future of Pakistan lies on the mega project of China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and the expertise of PEC along with other departments must be utilized to make this project more beneficial for Pakistani people, in terms of providing jobs to them.
He said all the institutions should jointly work for the progress of the country. Pakistan is enriched with natural resources but still not progressing which is a matter of great concern. Ministry of Science and Technology Secretary Yasmeen Masood while briefing the panel said that the ministry has dearth of senior officials and it has to deal with all the inquires and administrative matters of 16 attached organizations.
The committee directed the ministry to establish a separate section for handling all such matters to complete all the pending inquiry cases till January 31, 2019. The panel also directed Secretary Establishment to provide all the details of the vacant posts in 16 attached departments of the Ministry of Science and Technology in the next meeting.
Briefing the participants Chairman PEC, Jawed Salim Qureshi said the country has 2, 60,000 engineers including 2, 39,000 male and 17,423 female. Among all, 30 percent of Pakistani engineers are serving abroad.
He said that this institution has introduced strong reforms since the year 2015 and the degree of its registered institutions is now acknowledged at international level.
PEC controls 126 universities in the country and never allows admission of a single additional student in these institutions against the criteria. Otherwise, PEC imposes fine of Rs500,000 per student.
PEC, through recent reforms, made it mandatory for the international companies in Pakistan to appoint 70 percent local engineers, however majority of them are discharged on the site which needs attention of the authorities. He apprised the committee that PEC has signed an agreement with China for including Pakistani companies in CPEC. PEC has also signed agreements with many international companies to hold joint ventures with Pakistani companies.
He also briefed the committee about the issues being faced by PEC related to service structure for engineers, inclusion of engineers in policy making process, job issue of 50,000 engineers, amendments in PEC Act and technical allowance. The committee was informed that there are 12,000 vacant posts for engineers in the government departments which the committee recommended to fill up as soon as possible to end unemployment from the country.
The committee reviewed rules formation of Pakistan Halal Authority (PHA), delay in promotions of officials of Pakistan Standards Quality Control Authority (PSQCA), court cases, new appointments and performance, working and problems of PEC. Additional Secretary Establishment informed the committee that the draft of rules for PHA has been finalized. Ministry of Science and Technology will review the draft after which it will be sent to Cabinet Division for approval.
Chairman of committee said the Halal food is now a 200$ billion business and if the institutions work properly and take effective measures, can change the destiny of our country. The panel directed the Establishment Division to get approval of rules of formulation PHA within a month in consultation with Ministry of Law. The committee said that as livestock is a provincial subject and Halal authorities are operational at provincial level but lack of coordination and uniformity between the federating units and federal government is a major obstacle in promoting the exports of halal food from Pakistan. The panel stressed the need to implement same food quality standards across the country.
The committee expressed serious concerns over delayed cases of promotions, appointments and inquiry cases in PSQCA and questioned the performance of law officers in government institutions. Unfortunately, the decision of the cases which went against the government is only due to the inefficient law officers. It is better to determine salaries of law offices according to their performances, the committee observed.
The committee expressed strong reservations over the delayed cases of appointments and promotions for more than five years and directed the officials to complete all such cases as soon as earliest and present report before the committee.