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
