Major contenders of power intend to bring about a critical change Of 50 thousand registered engineers, only 15 thousand to decide about new leadership. IEP
Rising engineering demands be it huge technological transformation around the world or changes at home have affected each and every institution and among them, the Institution of Engineers Pakistan (IEP) is the one where many senior engineers seem resolute to respond to the demands of the day. The elections of the institution only have given them a platform.
IEP has over 50 thousand registered engineers and an overwhelming majority is dormant. The total number of voters is only 15 thousand. Karachi and Lahore, the two largest cities of Pakistan have a major concentration of voters with 5,000 and 3,000 voters respectively.
This time, the institution has three of its senior engineers vying for the top slot and have their plans for bringing about the change that they believe is necessary for engineering profession as well as education in Pakistan. They are Engr Farhat Adil, the sitting senior vice chairman, Javed Uppal, and Iqbal Qureshi.
Engr Farhat Adil claims they will bring about a critical change in the institution which has a long history of contribution to Pakistan’s engineering sector.
“I and my friends have reached a conclusion that the institution should play its due role in the changing circumstances. One of the demands is to help engineers for enhancement and modernization of engineering education. “To achieve this goal, I intend to launch engineering educational institutions all over Pakistan,” Engr Farhat revealed.
An NEDian and having over 35-year working experience with NESPAK, now in EA Consulting, Adil believes that a lot has changed since the institution came into existence. “IEP is like a nongovernmental organization (NGO) which was initially aimed at giving non-conventional education to the engineers and also to diploma holders for bringing them at par with engineers.
In Ayoob Khan era, Pakistan Railways diploma holders were doing engineering works and they were protesting for their upgradation. Thus, the IEP decided to give them unconditional training to bring them at par with engineers. It was a success at that time. Later on, many changes and modernization in engineering took place and thus the process could not continue.
Farhat recalled IEP tried to open its own educational institutions but could not do it for various reasons.
This time, I am resolute to open IEP University or IEP Engineering colleges in various cities.
This will not be a commercial venture as we do not want to earn money, but intend to give quality engineering education. Retired engineers and engineering professionals will teach there and also own the institutions. These institutions could be run under IEP foundation like Bahria and other foundations are running their institutions. This is a doable target, Engr Farhat says.
Like Farhat Adil, his fellow engineer Javed Uppal who is also a candidate for the office of the central chairman of the institution and strongly feels there must be a change. However, he says the IEP is in the sleeping mode and is unable to play its due role in the changing world. “IEP has become a club of engineers and is not serving the engineers”, he said while talking to Engineering Review.
“We should have begun training our engineers after Pakistan entered into International Mobility Group (IMG) and getting due share in the international job market for our engineers.” Since we did not, more jobs are going to Indians and Malaysians, he said.
Engr. Uppal claims he would do it after winning the elections as Pakistani engineers need a jump. “We would organize training at all IEP centers in Pakistan”, he resolved.
Why IEP is in the sleep mode? “Internal polarization has done such a damage”, he responded. The infight has diverted the attention of IEP from young engineers. I would try to bring such an antagonism to an end, he says.
“IEP can be effective if all groups should gather on a common ground and our group intends to give a serious try, he said. It is imperative because of two reasons, One that our industry is passing through a crisis and second that we need more efficient engineers for China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)
Uppal is satisfied with the response he is getting from IEP voters who participated in the elections through the ballot.
Engineering Review tried to contact Iqbal Qureshi but failed to talk to him
