Engineer Waseem Nazir, the Managing Director of MMP Pvt. Ltd is ready to contest August 2018 Elections of the Pakistan Engineering Council.
Aspiring for the office of the chairman, he has founded the third platform for engineers and is resolute to launch a struggle to restore honor and dignity of engineers in Pakistan.
“I have worked myself for long and now feel duty bound to do something for engineering community in my country”, He said while talking to Engineering Review in Karachi.
Due to his huge national and international exposure, he feels a dire need of transforming PEC into a genuine regulating body which not only faces the current challenges but also polish fresh engineers into the self-esteemed lot in the country.
Does he have any critical analysis of the performance of PEC so that he can claim to be deserving to lead it now?
“I don’t believe in mud slinging instead am interested in sharing my strengths”, he replied
The most important aspect which should not be overlooked is that the PEC has always been run by non-practicing engineers who do not know the issues of engineers in Pakistan.
The council, right from its inception in 1976 has mostly been run either by politically-affiliated engineers or some from academia. Have a look at last two tenures of the council, one was headed by Engineer Qadir Shah (brother of Syed Khursheed Shah, the former opposition leader in National Assembly and the other by an engineer who is a trader and running a pesticide company.
Since the leadership of the council does not belong to the practicing community of engineers, they were unable to resolve the issues.
The most important job that the council was supposed to do was regulating consultants, contractors, academia, public and private sectors. PEC failed to achieve such an objective because of its non-practicing leadership. Should we write our destiny with such a limited knowledge, background, and national exposure?
Time has changed now and it has changed the council too. Our engineers are not being recognized abroad, they do not get jobs in CPEC. For meeting such challenges, we need to get rid of traditional approach. Engineers want somebody who can think bigger.
We need to bring our house in order in the first place. I plan to build honor and dignity of engineers through grooming and thus boosting their self-esteem. They should be trained and groomed by PEC at engineering academies for a year. Besides engineering, they must come to know about ability, skill, knowledge, and habits.
Is Engineer Waseen Nazir’s group not affiliated with any political party?
One may have his/her affiliations with any party but it does not mean professionalism should be compromised, he says. Ours is a non-political forum no matter our friends may be affiliated with any political party but it has nothing do with the PEC which is a constitutional body.
I plan to regulate engineering profession which the council has to do as only issuing licenses is not enough. For instance, we do not know how many engineers we need in various disciplines in Pakistan. It’s PEC’s job. We need new technologies which again is council’s responsibility.
I intend to introduce a third platform in Pakistan as the two available platforms have become political. My platform offers a choice to engineers and also the leadership with real credentials. Engineers have to compare credentials of all competing leaders in August election of the PEC.
CPEC and PEC’s role for safeguarding the interests of Pakistani engineering community
We need a thorough debate on this issue. Regulation is not about taking a decision in haste or issuing license to the companies. We need well-thought-out policies to meet challenges in the backdrop of CPEC.
Then I have been advocating for long that PEC should have permanent desks in the Economic Affairs Division and Planning Commission. Each and every agreement should be vetted to make sure that there is no violation of PEC laws. In sum, we need an out of the box approach which is a must for our survival