ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi has said that engineers have played a vital role in ensuring the growth and development of the country, besides improving the quality of life of the citizens.

The president made these remarks while addressing the Engineers’ Excellence Awards 2020 and 2021, organised by the Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC) at Aiwan-e-Sadr on Wednesday.

Among others, Chairman Engineering Council Najeeb Haroon, members of the engineering fraternity and members of the civil society attended the ceremony.

The President emphasised that by imparting modern and innovative skills to our youth we could fill the resource and talent gap in important sectors which would put the country on fast-tracked development and progress.

He said that our educational institutions should rise to the occasion and increase their capacity to provide world-class knowledge and skills to their students so that they could compete in the international job market.

The President underlined the need to equip young engineers with emerging ICT tools for handling data and information. He also underscored the need for engaging fresh engineers through training and hands-on exposure to their profession.

While appreciating the efforts and hard work of Pakistani engineers, the President said that the engineers had played a pivotal role in the industrial development of Pakistan. He also lauded the scientists and engineers of Pakistan for developing nuclear deterrence for their country.

The President also appreciated PEC for its several initiatives, which included entrepreneurship, training of engineers, development of matchmaking portal, development of green energy building code, up-gradation of PEC’s bidding documents and re-activation of Pakistan Institute of Cost and Contracts for enhancing the role of engineers in the socio-economic development of the country.

The President said that it was unfortunate that despite being the fifth largest populated country in the world, our knowledge, skills and expertise did not commensurate with the strength of our population and we lagged behind in many sectors as compared to many other countries.

He said that it was unfortunate that we had to seek the help of qualified human resources in the vital sectors whereas by now we should have been fully self-sufficient in this regard.

A lot of national resources were spent on producing the engineers but they moved to other countries in the past due to a lack of employment opportunities in the country. Pakistan’s highly qualified engineers had played a pivotal role in the progress and development of many countries, especially in the Middle East.

Earlier, Chairman PEC Najeeb Haroon said that the objective of the PEC Engineers’ Excellence Awards was to recognise the outstanding services and achievements of eminent Pakistani engineers, who made a notable contribution to the country’s social and economic development.

Later, the President awarded the PEC Engineers’ Excellence Awards 2020 and 2021 to outstanding engineers.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022