Tag Archives: HVACR Society

MIA Associates chief Irfan states

on 06/06/2018

Professionals like us must pass on to young engineers’ knowledge, experience‘ HVACR events are useful but fall short of the need of the time’

 by Muhammad Salahuddin

I started my professional career in 1980 and then some 20 years later launched my own company, MIA associates, which is very much in the business of mechanical systems and HVAC since 2000. In all, I am in this field for over 36 years now and find nothing but to serve this profession for the rest of my life.

ER: What changes and transformations have you witnessed in this field in terms of technology improvements, product and business ethics throughout your long career?

HVAC business has improved at pretty good levels and the HVACR Society has also promoted many people but still I see a lacking. A bit more improvement is required like new entrants should have opportunity to progress which is denied. Then, the HVACR Society needs to do more like Ashre is doing at the international level leading its followers through its set of guidelines.

Our senior engineers should not take the society as a advertising tool for themselves but instead facilitate new engineers to progress in the field. On the technology side, there are many innovations and transformations worldwide. In Pakistan, use of energy efficient equipment and maintaining such design is a challenge. Therefore, how the world is meeting energy crisis in its HVAC is to be learnt and such methods are to be applied here.

ER: Environment has become one of the most important issues now. Do you observe any sensitization in your clients for opting environment-friendly design in HVACR?

Definitely! As I know the maintenance engineers hired by HVCAR employers and industrialists lately are aware on this subject. Let’s suppose we did not use wastage heat earlier but now it is being used for air-conditioning through absorption process mostly in textile industrial units. Also, our engineers have to set our own standards keeping in view the local environment through taking guidelines from global standards. Yet, I think we are pretty successful in making a local setting.

ER: What would you say about Pakistan HVACR Society’s role in implementation of building codes and designing of emergency efficiency in the country?

In the modern world, cities are planned properly keeping in view the requirement of its inhabitants whose number determine the needs that you require. Like, how much water is needed; power, roads, sewer and drainage system etc have to be determined.

In Karachi, nothing is planned. For example, a residential plot would turn into a commercial plaza and occupied by hundreds of people rather than original smaller number. Eventually, it affects everything. Resultantly, roads start to be inundated by sewerage water and in many areas drinking water is not found.

In sum, whatever was built in 40 years failed to be implemented and now the population has exceeded the limit. Thus, the provincial government should work on it more although it has started working and it is evident in the city which is appreciable.

ER: 25th HVACR Expo is being held in April and you have been attending these events, do you think it’s useful?

Yes, it is useful. However, its level is not up to the mark. It’s been many years that this event is being organized. Organizing an event once a year does not meet the objective. They host quite a few seminars also but they are nor affordable for young engineers. I suggest they should be invited free of cost so that they are prepared for this field.

CPEC It is just a road. I can’t understand if it can meet your industrial requirements. Nothing important is being set up here. This road passes through Pakistan connecting many countries in South Asia. At least now I am unable to understand. Our rulers however should know what is best for Pakistan. Unfortunately, the people who understand the situation are not in the government at present. Thus, the Pakistan Engineering Council should play its due role which it is not doing at the moment. It has to move ahead for promotion and progress of engineering industry in Pakistan so that we export our products.

I think we should invest in our young engineers in terms of passing on to them the knowledge and experience which we gained in many decades of our professional work in this field. This is imperative so that they move forward.

25th HVACR Expo is the biggest one ever: Ch. Nadeem Afzal

on 06/06/2018

‘CPEC is a double-edged sword’

Chairman ISB chapter & org CMTE says Islamabad must have an expo center

The 25th HVACR Expo which will bless Islamabad’s Convention Centre from April 4 to 7, 2018 is claimed to be the biggest ever among the HVACR annual exp os which its organizers have organized so far. This time there are many companies from abroad scheduled to participate in the event that have never been here before.

They are visiting Pakistan for the first time, said Chaudhry Nadeem A. Rauf, the Chairman of Organizing Committee told Engineering Review. He claimed never ever before this exhibition, has an event been organized on such a wide space such as over 121,000 square feet. It also makes this expo a distinctive event in HVACR exhibitions’ history.

Despite all distinction that this expo is bringing with it, a lacking is very much evident. This exhibition is out of the expo centre which Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital does not have. Pakistan’s other cities like Karachi and Lahore have big expo centres which host a number of exhibitions around the year. This facility is not available in Islamabad, Chaudhry Nadeem said. The government must decide to provide such facility in the capital. It should be done on war footing, he stressed.

HVACR Society Chaudhry Nadeem is satisfied with the role the HVACR Society is playing in Pakistan. In a country where brain drain is a big issue, and good technical hands dream of going abroad in search of lucrative jobs, training young engineers is a big task. “The skilled people in Pakistan opt for jobs in developed countries”, he said. The rest who remain here require technical trainings and all three centres of the society here in Pakistan organize technical seminars to give them knowledge, he added. They are being trained keeping in view the modern technologies which are entering in the HVACR market.

Also the society is trying to create a linkage between academia and industry so that the potential on both sides is streamlined and used at its maximum level, he says.

Chaudhry Afzal believes we require more and more people as Pakistan’s HVACR market is wide and it is a requirement now rather than luxury. Each and every place needs air-conditioning and the more businesses in Pakistan more is the HVACR activity.

CPEC“It is a double-edged sword”, he observed. Pakistan would be benefitted as the route would be used and thus the people would work and new zones would be set up. But, he said the interests of local people and industry must be protected.The government should think about how the local industry and manufacturing should be safeguarded, he said adding China wanted this route to export its products all around the world and it needed to transfer its industrial units which would benefit it. But would it benefit our local industry, he asked.

The question is if the policy makers in Pakistan are seriously considering the concerns of Pakistan’s business community? It does not seem the government is taking it seriously, Chaudhry Nadeem says. I don’t think it is happening, he observed.

In current situation, he said manufacturing in Pakistan was not less than a ‘jihad’. In order to boost local industry, joint ventures would have been made under CPEC but unfortunately it did not happen and now no one knows about the future.