The ‘Bhurban Moot’ of the Governing Body of the Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC) wrote a brand-new story on how a PEC chairman compromised his self-respect and the fundamental interests of engineers because of his exclusionist style of leadership, and how he was besieged by members of the Governing Body of the council.
The story stood far from completion at that scenic place near Murree; it entered the next episode at Ramada Hotel and turned out bigger than Bhurban.
The 52nd GB meeting held at Ramada Hotel Islamabad on June 27 left nothing for the chairman but to walk away from the meeting in sheer disappointment after failing to defend what the members call his unilateral steps during his almost one-year rule. Although no one allowed him to leave the meeting hall, the members, including many from his allies, kept on insisting that the council should be run in line with the Act and Bylaws.
The ironic aspect of the council’s one-year odyssey under Engr. Waseem Nazir is that the overwhelming majority of the 64-member GB has come to the conclusion that he, rather than learning the proper functioning of the council as per its Act and Bylaws and adopting an inclusive approach, is bent upon imposing one-man rule. As a result, his so-called reform is in shambles as he continues to influence the GB so that he alone may be allowed to make decisions.
Interestingly, at least three vice chancellors and a host of senior members failed to convince the chairman to adopt an institutional approach to make decisions on significant issues concerning the very future of the council and the engineering fraternity in Pakistan. The most recent example is his move to register technologists with engineers under the PEC umbrella. However, the issue relating to the Registrar of the council remained at the forefront in this meeting.
The Islamabad meeting of the GB witnessed some serious violations on the part of the chairman, a GB member believes. For instance, he revealed the chairman was adamant to grab a nod for him to decide on the fate of the PEC registrar Dr. Nasir Mehmood, who was alleged to have tampered with the minutes of the 49th meeting of the GB.
An Inquiry Panel, comprised of GB members, has recently confirmed violations in PEC meeting proceedings and decisions and concluded that the registrar’s elevation, ADR payments, and GB elections breached original decisions of the 49th Governing Body meeting.
This meeting, said another member, was due to take the proceedings further on the findings of the panel, and the GB was also supposed to give the charge of the office of the registrar to the most senior officer in the council. Dr. Mehmood, sensing the situation, went on a one-month (presumably forced) leave. ‘Instead of adopting due course, the chairman refused to name a replacement for the office of the registrar and insisted that he should be left to make such a decision,’ he said.
Yet another weird part of the moot started unfolding when the chairman opened, at the start of the meeting, a sealed envelope containing the leave application of Dr. Mehmood, who, according to him, was undergoing serious health problems and thus unable to attend the meeting. ‘Wasn’t it funny that the chairman brought the application into the house rather than approving it as the chief of the council?’ asked numerous members in the meeting hall. Many members suspect the chairman was attempting to gather sympathies for the registrar, a member said.
Engineering Review’s interactions with a variety of stakeholders in the council unearthed that the argument between the chairman and the members, mostly from the TEP and NEA, went on for around 5 hours and no side budged from their positions. In the course of a highly heated debate, Engr. Salih Rind, a TEP-supported member, led the onslaught against the chairman this time. He was aided by his other colleagues, including Engr. Ameer Zamir and Engr. Pardeep Kumar. A notable part of this episode is that the GB members from NEA, one of Engr. Nazir’s allies, including Dr. Aneel Kumar and Engr. Abid Shah, also joined forces with Engr. Salih and his supporters. Even at one point, two vice chancellors, Dr. Sarosh Lodi and Dr. Samreen Hussain, also tried to convince the chairman to take an inclusive approach on the issue of the registrar as well as the registration of technologists in the council.
‘There was no specific plan to push the chairman into a corner. Since he was adamant to stick to his authoritarian approach, members from all sides tried to convince him, but he refused,’ a member suggested.
After a long debate and trading of allegations between the chairman and TEP+NEA members, the meeting constituted a five-member committee to further investigate the issues relating to the promotion of Dr. Nasir Mehmood, ADR payments, and GB elections that breached the original decisions of the 49th Governing Body meeting. The committee will come up with the report within a month.
The committee comprises Dr. Qaiser Ali, Dr. Samreen Hussain, Dr. Hafsa Jamshaid, Dr. Masood, and Dr. Riffat Hassan.
Moreover, the meeting deferred two issues till the next meeting. They included: progress on integration of the technology stream under the PEC umbrella and adoption/implementation of the pension scheme for regular employees of PEC.
