World Telecommunication and Information Society Day at MUET

on 27/08/2019

World Telecommunication and Information Society Day (WTISD) was celebrated at Mehran University of Engineering and Technology, Jamshoro.
The event was approved by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), and it was aimed at raising awareness regarding the use of the Internet and other communication technologies to bring ties between the societies and economy.
This event was celebrated in collaboration with IEEE Communications Society – Karachi Chapter; having the theme ‘Bridging the Standardization Gap (BSG)’- ITU’s initiative with an objective of enhancing the technical capacity of developing countries and encouraging them to play an active role in the development of ITU’s international Standards and to participate in the making of the standards for ITU.
Prof. Emeritus Dr. Bhawani Shankar Chowdhry, the Chairperson of IEEE Communications Society – Karachi Chapter (IEEE ComSoc-Khi) discussed the efforts taken by IEEE ComSoc-Khi to spread knowledge about innovations in telecommunication further informed that IEEE ComSoc-Khi has been Organizing Workshops on the Internet of thing IoT, Artificial Intelligence AI with regards to telecommunication.
The discussion involved opportunities for researchers to take part in the development of telecommunication standards from the platform of IEEE.
The event included two technical lectures, First by Engr. Mehran Memon Assistant Professor at Telecommunication Department Whose focus was to discuss the benefits of Standardization In Telecommunication based on the Internet of Things IoT, maintaining compatibility with legacy communication technologies also showered light on BGS mission of ITU to convey cognizance in developing countries. Second Technical lecture was delivered by Mr. Imad Memon Director General (Licensing) Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) who shared the vision of PTA ensuring high-quality ICT services, creating Environment to promote competition, encouraging investment in Telecommunication Sector, efforts to enable 5G Wireless Communication and discussed the participation of PTA in Development Sector.
Prof. Dr. Faisal Shaikh, the Chairman of the Department of Telecommunication Engineering, informed that Mehran University had organized events to celebrate WTISD for the past 9 years by arranging technical lectur

Survey Engineer: An overlooked role of a Civil Engineer by Engr. Imran Anees

on 27/08/2019


A simple question raised in my mind during a discussion with a group of final year students of Civil Engineering and I could not stop myself to ask them.
“What are your career plans after graduation? “
All were at staring me with a confusing look. The question was not properly understood or maybe it had a lack of elaboration. I asked again.
“Ok… let me ask in simple words… what do you want to do after passing out? Do you have some specific field in mind to choose like hydraulics, Geotechnical Engineering, Transportation Engineering, Hydrology, etc?”.
Consequently, I got the following responses:
“I like structural engineering… I would like to do my post-graduation in structural engineering especially Bridge Design.” “I plan to be a Highway Designer. I believe that there will be a lot of career opportunities in Highway/Transportation Engineering because of the CPEC (China-Pakistan Economic Corridor)”
“So No one wants to be a Survey Engineer or Geodetic Engineer”.
“I have not decided yet but I will prefer Geotechnical and Foundation Engineering”
“I would like to be in the construction business as a contractor/constructor/developer”.
Their answers depicted their own choices and interests. All were valid answers. My next question was just as a comment on their answers.
“I know you are civil engineering final year students and I am well aware of your curriculum. There are subjects such as Basic Surveying and Advance surveying in 1st and second year of the engineering curriculum. Both subjects are not minor/non-technical subjects like Social Studies. I am sure you have learned Surveying related subjects with practical. Am I Right?”
I found them puzzled. Everyone was looking towards me with a confused look. I cleared my throat and again asked with a smile on my face in a light tone “Anyone in your class who has ambitions to prefer surveying and mapping as a career field?”
“No sir maybe because we are from the civil engineering department.” one guy answered sheepishly.
“Yes, sir. You are right. But we have heard for the first time about Survey Engineers. We were told about the role of Civil Engineers as Geotechnical Engineers, Irrigation Engineers, Highway/Railway Engineers, Hydraulic Engineers, etc only. “ One of them replied in a defensive way.
“Is there any survey engineer in your organization?” A counter-question was raised by one student.
The discussion was taking an interesting turn by this question. I replied in affirmation by saying “Yes, I am a survey engineer for 17 years.”
This conversation led us to have a detailed discussion on career in civil engineering. Let me clarify to the readers that I am not a career counselor neither I started this discussion intentionally. But this conversation enforced me to write this blog to elaborate on the role of a civil engineer as Survey Engineer.
Surveying — A major course in Civil Engineering Curriculum but considered as a minor subject

I got a B.E Civil Engineering (Bachelor of Engineering in Civil Engineering) degree in 2002. At that time, the civil engineering curriculum consisted of the major subjects such as Transportation Engineering (Highways and Railways), Reinforced Concrete Structures, Structural Analysis, Hydraulic & Irrigation Engineering, Foundation Engineering, Soil Mechanics, Fluid Mechanics, Surveying, Construction Management, and Hydrology. Surveying was included as Surveying-I in the first year and Surveying-II in the second year subjects. The course contents were limited to the Chain surveying and ranging, measurement of bearings using the compass, plane table surveying, Levelling using dumpy level, Techeometry, Coordinate calculations, Traverses, Triangulation/Trilateration, creating plans/profiles/cross-sections and Contours. Besides theoretical lecturing, practicals in the laboratory were mandatory. The equipment recommended and used for practicals were limited to the steel chains, compass, and manual theodolites. The theodolite was always packed in the safety case as it was considered as very sensitive and expensive equipment. However, on the last lecture of the surveying-II subject, a practical session was held for 3 hours. During that session, I was lucky enough to have a close view of the theodolite with a tripod. This was the only interaction with a surveying instrument during my academics.
The advancements in the technology made surveying more valuable, accurate and comprehensive than ever. New surveying equipment and techniques are developed or being developed. The major example is GPS/GNSS technology in surveying which is extremely precise, fast and reliable. Besides that, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Photogrammetry and remote sensing are now the integrals of surveying and mapping. Technological revolutions have made surveying completely digital by introducing hardware such as RTX-GNSS systems, UAVs / Drones, 3D Scanners. Bryn Fosburgh has well elaborated in his article about modern surveying.
During the discussion with students, I was shocked to know that they were taught the same curriculum which I learned around 2 decades ago. The manual theodolite and tacheometry used in the ’90s is obsolete technology nowadays but still, the students are being taught about these historic surveying instruments. The students also explicated that their academic institute has upgraded their surveying laboratory with a Total Station and handheld GPS units. They were taught the same book I read in 2000 (Surveying and Levelling by T.P.Kanetkar ISBN: ISBN10 8185825114). A practical field trip named as “Survey Camp” was held for 10 days to a hill station in the northern part of Pakistan. The trip was nothing but a sightseeing trip as neither students nor faculty was interested to practice basic surveying tasks.
Recently, I got an opportunity to teach Geoinformatics subject to final year civil engineering students of a private sector university. The course contents of the subject were GIS, Spatial Analysis, Geo-referencing, processing different raster, and vector data formats, Interpolation, 3D analysis, and other topics. All these topics have a strong bond with surveying. The basic surveying and mapping concepts were pre-requisites of the geo-informatics subject. I was disappointed to see the discrepancy and lack of concepts among students about basic surveying. This disclosed the fact that the surveying subject is not being taken as a serious and major subject of Civil Engineering. An inexperienced faculty which have no interaction with Civil engineering Industry or the gaps between academia & industry may be the vital causes of this issue, but even there are misconceptions among civil engineering professionals community about surveying. Let me enlist some here:
An engineer is not the surveyor but a user of surveyor’s product (for example a topographic map).
It is “none of the business” of a hydraulic design engineer to know how the data was captured for a water channel in the field.
A civil engineer is not born to calculate misclosure error of a control network. It’s a surveyor’s duty.
It is not a Civil Engineer’s job to calculate rise and fall by leveling in the field where he may have to face the dust, sunlight, snowfall, and hard terrain.
A hydrologist just needs to calculate the catchment area, flow parameters, drainage network, highest flood level, and other hydrological parameters from a contour map/Digital Elevation Model regardless of the source of data and methodology adopted.
and what they mean by a surveyor? A person who has a 6 months/1 year/3-year diploma degree in Civil Engineering from a college ( Not a 4-year degree from university). Let me clarify that a civil engineer is capable to solve complex mathematical formulas, statistical analysis, etc but a diploma holder surveyor is only capable to operate instruments in the field. Besides that, a civil engineer can be a good cartographer than a diploma holder.
Let me conclude that Surveying should be taken as a major subject in academics and should be taught in detail according to the industry needs and standards. Besides that, the civil engineering community should take Surveying Engineering as an integral part of Civil Engineering

‘PC – II of K – IV rough work of a child’

on 27/08/2019

“Rehiring of Osmani & Consultants Ltd.
sets the stage for making more and more mistakes in
the preparation of PC-I, find investigators”

Karachi’s premier water supply scheme, K – IV was not taken seriously from very beginning and PC – II of the project seems to be the rough work of a child instead of a professional document of significance appropriate to this very important project involving the water needs of tens of millions of people, found the investigation instituted by the Sindh government.
The findings of the report of which a copy is with Engineering Review says both the Karachi Water & Sewerage Board (KWSB) and the consultants Osmani & Company Ltd. (OCL)are accountable and have shifted responsibility on each other.
The inquiry was done by Aijaz Ahmed Mahesar, Secretary to the government of Sindh.
“The systemic failure of checks and control has been observed during the planning, preparation, and implementation of K-IV. This is mainly because the Consultants (OCL), who initially prepared PC-II/ Feasibility (including design of K-IV) was rehired during implementation as “Design and Supervision Consultants “with the tasks of, inter alia, drawings and designs of K-IV and review the earlier designs prepared by the PC-II Consultants (who were otherwise to be a different Consultant). Re-hiring, the Consultants who prepared PC-II for PC-I design and implementation Consultancy was not only the conflict of interest but this also set a stage for making more and more mistakes in the preparation of PC-I, its implementation and avoiding systemic controls,” the finding unearths. “This needs to be further investigated as to why and under what circumstances the same (OCL) consultant was repeatedly hired ignoring the conflict of interest,” it recommends.
As per feasibility study carried out by the KW&SB in the year 2002 as well as the scope of work, services, and TORS clearly define the responsibility of the Consultants, who on the other hand has shifted the responsibility to others.
The findings further say the contention of the consultants that they were not supposed to prepare the PC-I is neither tenable nor justified and contradictory to Feasibility Study (Stage-2).
In any case, the original PC-I was prepared by them, which was clocked, approved and signed by the officers of Sponsoring Agency {KW&SB} who also ignored to verify that many tasks were found missing in the document.
The investigators found Ex Project Director Mr. Saleem Siddiquinot exempted from the responsibility. “The contention of the Ex Project Director Mr. Saleem Siddiqui that he had no role in the preparation, checking or approval of the PC-I and that modification in PC-I thereafter at a later stage was just formality and these modifications were limited to the extent of clarification as and when asked by the forums like PDWP / CDWP / ECNEC during the proceedings also does not exempt him from the responsibility.”
In its conclusion, the reports say: After perusal of all records and statements made available to the undersigned and keeping in view the findings, it is concluded the K-IV was badly planned since its inception and utter negligence in discharging the duty was also observed at various levels.
As a result, the cost of the program is increased exponentially, and the benefits of the K-IV have not been harvested in time. The responsibility lies on various stakeholders as under:
I. The consultant i.e. Osmani& Company (Pvt) Ltd. who during feasibility failed to deliver the deliverables in time, did not bring foreign technical expert as per the agreement, prepared faulty PC-I and kept major components missing. They also failed to deliver as effective Design and Supervision consultant
II. Officers of KS&WB who prepared PC I, reviewed and verified it but could not fulfill their obligation to point out or incorporate the missing components in K-IV PC-I at various stages spanning over years and years of planning as well as reviewing of the project.
III. The Committee and officers who appointed OCL as Design and Supervision Consultants, who were already feasibility and design Consultants for the same project failed to observe the conflict of interest. This can be viewed as a standalone lapse which paved the way for the subsequent failures.
IV. The Project Directors/ In charges of feasibility and PC-I of K-IV also failed to fulfill their obligation for their failure to force the contract management with the Consultants and get deliverables in time

ICCI for early finalization of SME Policy

on 27/08/2019

President Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI) Ahmed Hassan Moughal has said that SMEs played a key role in the economic development of any country, but these businesses in Pakistan were facing multiple problems due to lack of supportive policies.
He stressed that the government should take measures for early finalization of SME Policy 2019 to create a conducive environment for better growth of SMEs.
Ahmed Hassan Moughal said in a statement that SMEs were the backbone of our economy as they constituted over 90 percent of all enterprises in Pakistan, contributed 40 percent to GDP growth, employed 80 percent of the non-agricultural labor force and were a major source of exports. However, it was unfortunate that these businesses were not getting due attention of the government despite the fact that the SME sector was an important pillar of the economy and needed priority focus for development and growth.
He said that SMEDA has been working for the last many months on SME Policy 2019, but still, the policy could not be finalized. He urged that government in consultation with all stakeholders should immediately finalize and announce new SME policy as the last SME policy developed in 2007 could not contribute effectively in promoting SMEs in the country. The President ICCI further stated that lack of easy access to finance was the major hurdle for SMEs due to which share of SMEs in total private sector credit was just around 6-8 percent. He emphasized that new SME policy should ensure easy access to credit for SMEs so that these businesses could grow up to their real potential and play an effective role in the economic development of the country.

S. Munawwar Assumes Office of The Chairperson (Electrical) at NHU

on 16/08/2019

Karachi: Saqib Munawwar (recipient, Pride of Kuala Lumpur); took the acting charge of the Office of The Chairman at Department of Electrical Engineering (DEE), Faculty of Engineering Practices and Sciences (FEPS), Nazeer Hussain University (NHU).

He is among the active members of following professional institutions:

  • The IEEEP (Life Member # M-1171, active since 2005). Servicing as Council Member and served as Honorary Convener Registration twice and Honorary Convener Student Affairs at Karachi Centre.
  • The IEP (Life Member # M-17049/KAR-1645, active since 2006). 2009 Youngest Author at 4th IMEC.
  • IEEE (USA) Member # 80623071 active since 2007. Presently serving as Honorary Mentor and Member Executive Committee. Recipient 2017 IEEE (USA) Pakistan’s Best Advisor Award.
  • Pakistan HVACR Society (Life Member # 021-2-0516, active since 2004). Served as Honorary Media & Membership Secretary at Karachi Chapter.
  • ASHRAE (USA) Member # 08075315, active since 2005. Served ASHRAE Pakistan Chapter as Council Member. 4 times Youngest Author in 2007, 2008, 2009 & 2012 ASHRAE Pakistan Conferences at Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad respectively.
  • Pakistan Engineering Council, among most active members for PEC-CPD activities.
  • Computer Society of Pakistan (since 2009).
  • Khwarizmi Science Society (Life Member since 2010).
  • Illumination Society of Pakistan.
  • The IET (UK) Formerly The IEE (UK) (Member # 87814003).
  • ACM (USA) – Association of Computing Machinery (Member # 8932811).
  • ACS (USA) – American Chemical Society (2016 Honorary Membership Offer Letter)
  • Youth Parliament, Pakistan (Life Member: 2493)

Furthermore he is a catalyst at renowned International/National HEIs/RIs moreover has:

  • R&D honours & awards from Singapore & Malaysia
  • Published 03 books (available at AMAZON).
  • Educational tours to New Delhi, Moratuwa & Kiev.
  • Collaborative visits to Bangkok & Istanbul.
  • Professional training from Abu Dhabi by German firm.
  • Author/coauthor in the reputed journal/conference.
  • Honour being the recipient of “Muslim Icon” title in the ARY Qtv Youth Council.
  • Legacy being the Torchbearer of Nazeer Hussain University for HEC acknowledged Foreign Research Visit.
  • Legacy being the Torchbearer SSR of IEEE (USA) Karachi Section for the territory of Sindh & Balochistan provinces under the mentorship of Prof. Dr. Muhammad Shahab Siddiqui.
  • Honour being the successor of former worthy serving Vice Chancellors of NED University of Engineering & Technology (Prof. Engr. Dr. Munir M. Hasan) and Mehran University of Engineering & Technology (Prof. Engr. Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan Rajput SI; presently Chairman CIEC Sindh) as Convener Students’ Affairs at IEEEP KLC. Engr. Saqib was inducted in IEEEP KLC by Engr. Tahir Saleem for achieving 5 International Accolades and was appointed for the said Honorary Position at the IEP (Founded by Quaid-e-Azam) in Council Meeting chaired by Engr. Obaid ur Rahman Khan Kamal Zai (GM Electrical, NESPAK).

He has delivered R&D motivational talks/seminars/workshops (all in-person) at 24 HEIs/DAIs in India (JMI), Malaysia (MMU & UTAR) Pakistan (DUET, FAST-NUCES, GCU Faisalabad, GIKI Swabi, Hamdard Univ., IIEE, IQRA Univ., ISRA Univ. Hyderabad, Jinnah Univ. for Women, MUET Jamshoro, NEDUET, NUST Islamabad, PAF-KIET, PNEC-NUST, QUEST Nawabshah, UET Lahore, UIT, and USindh), Singapore (NUS), Sri Lanka (Univ. of Moratuwa), and UAE (HCT-ADMC). Since 2013 he has been servicing for various International Conferences as Reviewer and TPC/PC Member in Belgium, Indonesia, Jordan, Morocco, Portugal and Ukraine