Tech Construction Bank may be a reality!

on 07/05/2019

PEC moves to form ‘Engineers Foundation’,
7-member steering committee formed

There may be many numerous good things behind the walls of the Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC), at least one has succeeded coming out for sure that the council has moved on founding an Engineers Foundation. This foundation also includes a ‘Technology Construction Bank’ (TCB) which was committed by Chairman Jawed Saleem Qureshi during his election campaign. Engineers Foundation was also established by the council in the past while Engr. Illahi Bux Soomro was leading the organization. Now, the council would get the foundation registered with ACEP with requisite changes necessary in today’s environment.

Information pouring in from the council says that the governing body has constituted a steering committee for this task. Engr. Zahid Arif, the former VC, PEC KP, is leading the committee of seven members.
The foundation which would be functioning under the umbrella of the PEC aims to launch welfare programs for the engineers of all disciplines, consultants, construction industry and etc. The initial thought process shared with Engineering Review suggests the council also aims to establish technology parks in major cities of the country.

These parks would have multiple setups such as incubation centers, research, and training facilities so that the senior engineering community, as well as the fresh engineers, benefit from such parks.
The council believes Karachi, Islamabad, and Lahore should be top priorities for starting with these technology parks. The very first park would be established either in Islamabad or Karachi. The final decision is yet to be taken. The council was trying to employ experience from many successful projects and applications around the world that ultimately transformed into businesses and industry such as Karim and Uber. They created millions of jobs for the people. Efforts in such fields may also benefit Pakistani engineers in a great deal.

The model of China Construction Bank has basically inspired the council which believes TCB may play a lead role for the development of engineers and engineering industry in Pakistan.
The bank would give soft loans to the engineering industry for its development and also to jobless and fresh engineers to start their projects. The initial capital would be generated by the engineering community.
Since it would be a specific bank for engineers and engineering industry, the council intends to approach the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) for low markups of the loans. n

Islamabad releases Rs 373.88 bn for dev schemes National Highway Authority gets Rs 157.941 bn

on 03/04/2019

The federal government has released Rs 373.88 billion for various ongoing and new schemes against the total allocation of Rs 675 billion under its Public Sector Development Program (PSDP) 2018-19.
Ministry of Planning, Development and Reform data says the released funds include Rs 153.632 billion for federal ministries, Rs 169.835 billion for corporations, and Rs 30.286 billion for special areas.2 Rs 157.941 billion for National Highway Authority (NHA) against total allocation of Rs 185.197 billion
2 Rs 11.894 billion for NTDC and PEPCO against total allocation of Rs 33.365 billion in PSDP 2018-19
2 Rs 6.333 billion for Communication Division (other than NHA) against total allocation of Rs13.977 billion
2 Rs 16.999 billion for Railways Division against total allocation of Rs 28.06 billion
2 Rs 0.742 billion for Aviation Division against total allocation of Rs 3.65 billion
2 Rs 18.51 billion for various development projects of Higher Education Commission against Rs 30.961 billion
2 Rs 18.217 billion for Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission
2 Rs 28.546 billion for Water Resource Division against Rs78.09 billion
2 Rs 2.735 billion for National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination Division against Rs 12.784 billion
2 Rs 0.195 billion for Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Authority against total allocations of Rs0.285 billion.
2 Rs 2.229 billion for Finance Division against total allocations of Rs12.346 billion
2 Rs 0.7 billion for Climate Change Division against total allocations of Rs0.802 billion
2 Rs 0.324 billion for Petroleum Division against allocations of Rs 0.463 billion
2 Rs1.986 billion for Planning, Development and Reform Division against Rs 6.932 billion
2 Rs 15.596 billion for SUPARCO
2 Rs 18.369 billion for States and Frontier Region Division
2 Rs7.908 billion for Interior Division
2 Rs 20 million for Human Rights Division
2 Rs 411.5 million for National Food Security and Research Division
2 Rs 17.672 billion for AJK (block and other projects)
2 Rs 12.614 billion for Gilgit Baltistan (block and other projects)

IEEE Karachi holds a technical seminar

on 03/04/2019

IEEE PES Chapter Karachi organized a Technical Seminar’ titled “Procedure for Testing of Power Cable”.
This was the second activity by IEEE PES Chapter Karachi in 2019.
Participated by 50 people, it was basically a versatile event where participants and industry leaders were facilitated to engage with each other.
The moot was in line with IEEE which is committed to helping engineering Profession by evaluating technical knowledge and creating building blocks of a lifelong and diverse professional network.
It was a one-day seminar with “Engr. Tahir Saleem” as the speaker. “Dr. Shahid Shaikh” had been invited as the Chief Guest.
The seminar was started with recitation of Holy Quran.
Parkash Lohana held a session on membership development.
The seminar comprised two parts. The first part of the seminar was on the insulation resistance test, high voltage test, VLF Hipot test, IEE400 guide and different Standards (IEEE, NFPA, and ANSI).
A healthy discussion on different topics including the testing for cable and how a contractor can have testing with different stages of cable took place.
At the end of the session, an IEEE Membership Development presentation was given to encourage industry Fellow to be part of the IEEE organization by Engr. Parkash Lohana.
The lecture lasted for more than 60 minutes, overall Satisfactory and was attended by a very large number of Professionals from Industry. After the Seminar, minor High Tea was arranged.

The Role Of Engineering In The Pharmaceutical Industry By: Qazi Muhammad Zaheeruddin

on 03/04/2019

Let’s rewind the time back and have a glimpse on the history of Pharmaceutical Industries in Pakistan. We’ll find that in the past 3 decades or so the industry has thrived by leaps and bounds. Pharma industry then used to be managed by very limited knowledgeable mechanical/electrical engineers.
For pharmacists, who were mostly head of the operation, their presence was a wonder to them. Pakistan’s Pharma industry has flourished at very high pace with global pharmaceutical advances with more stringent requirements of cGMP (current Good Manufacturing Practice).
The regulatory requirements such as Calibration, HVAC certification, Utilities quality requirement etc. increased the demand of more Engineers from different disciplines of engineering.
Every advanced machinery used for the manufacturing and packaging suppliers from Europe, USA, Korea, Taiwan and China supplies machines in Pakistan. That also increased the demand of the engineers incredibly as the latest machines were introduced in the Pharma industry. The grim need of engineers was felt in the Pharma industry together with quality control, quality assurance and supply chain staffing. Now, Engineers are in the main stream of management of a Pharma operation. As advanced machinery started to provide better quality product at high speed rates from production to packaging stages, the engineers became back-bone of the advanced Pharmaceutical industry.
The vendor qualification is an inherent part of supply chain & quality job description. Their audit team goes all the way to their sites to perform quality check of the material being used in making quality Pharma products. Engineers are in-house suppliers of HVAC, compressed air, steam, inert gases and different types of water (Portable, RO, DIW, WFI etc.). These are all utilities which should be supplied according to standards published. The quality of in-house, uninterrupted supply created huge demand of Engineers in the Pharma industries.
Besides taking care of quality of utilities, Engineers are responsible for proper preventive maintenance (P.M) program. This together with calibration is favorite topic of any pharma plant audit whether local or internationals. A well written P.M program is audit requirement creating demands of well qualified Engineers.
Moreover, with increased computerization & PLC based machines, the demand of highly trained qualified engineers would go further higher as all international certifications & compliances are looking for more organized engineering application to ensure we supply zero defect products to secure patient’s life.

Pakistan’s power woes refuse to die! No transmission lines to evacuate increased power

on 03/04/2019

Pakistan added up 10700 MW of electricity in its national grid during 2013 to 2018 but country’s woes remain especially in its backward province of Balochistan.
Senators from this rugged province say the province is undergoing a spell of load shedding spread over 12 to 14 hours in a day. They believe the National Transmission Dispatch Company (NTDC) is responsible for such a situation in their province.
Pakistan’s Power Division is fully agreed with the senators. One of the officials who briefed the Senate’s Sub-Committee on Power said despite the availability of power in the system, they could not evacuate it because transmission lines were not available.
Over 22000 MW of electricity is available but the transmission system is able to transfer only 19800 MW of electricity.
Interestingly enough, there was no parallel action required to lay the transmission line as we lack proper planning in the country. He told the moot that Power Division was fully aware of the delay in transmission line projects and had communicated to then MD NTDC to complete the projects in time.
The committee led by senator Agha Shahzaib Durrani deplored the performance of the NTDC saying power losses, unprecedented load shedding and malfunction of the system had made the lives of the people of Balochistan miserable.
Joint secretary Power Division Zargham Khan told the committee that the government was trying to ensure an increased supply of electricity to the consumers in the recent summer season as 90 percent constraints in transmitting electricity have been addressed after removing previous managing director National Transmission and Dispatch Company (NTDC).
The national electric power regulatory authority (Nepra) had issued show cause notice during the tenure of previous managing director NTDC due to delay in 16 projects.
He revealed that the delay in transmission line projects was leading them to face a threat of multimillion dollars penalty on account of capacity payments to be charged by power plants.
The government was facing a threat of 0.7 million dollar per day penalty due to delay in a transmission line to interconnect with 1320 MW Port Qasim power plant, the official maintained.
Now, 16 transmission line projects have been completed and the government is able to lay transmission line on time to connect with Port Qasim power plant. – ISLAMABAD: ER Report