Govt to investigate the irregularities in the Pec

The government has launched a probe in the alleged irregularities in the Pakistan engineering council (PC), following the complaints against the management of the Council on different issues, including the electoral process.

In this regard, a committee was constituted with the mandate to evaluate the PEC performance in relation to the preamble to the Pakistan Engineering Council 1975, as well as its functions specified in section 8 of the law.

It will evaluate the authenticity of complaints against the PEC and the general dissatisfaction with the body. It will also examine the law of 1975 to determine if there are gaps or weaknesses that affect the institutional result.

The Committee includes the Minister of Law and Justice, who is the convener, the Minister of Science and Technology, the Minister of National Food and Research, Industry and Production Secretary, the Secretary of Law and Justice, Secretary of Science and Technology as members and any other member co -opted by the Commission. He will send his government’s report within three weeks. Pec is a statutory regulatory body, which works under the administrative vision of the Ministry of Science and Technology. It was established by an act of Parliament in 1976 with the mandate of regulating the profession of engineering and engineering education.

In a recent meeting of the cabinet it was informed that the Board of the Pec was the main executive authority for the supervision and governance of the council. It is composed of 66 professional engineers with a minimum experience of 20 years.

The meeting was said that, in accordance with the statutes, the elections of the PEC management body were made through an electoral committee. The elections took place on August 18, 2024 for the term 2024-27. However, after the vote, several complaints and accusations were made. The Federal Minister for AHSAN IQbal planning filed a complaint that he could not vote, because the biometric system ceased to work and many engineers also left without giving their vote after waiting for a long time. He stated that unverified engineers were allowed to vote at that time.

The engineers were obliged to suffer the biometric verification system Nadra before expressing their vote. The system was facing an interruption at 11 in the morning on the day of polling, which lasts about three hours. On a letter written by the planning minister, the Ministry of Interior initiated an investigation. The results of the investigation revealed that the problem took place due to a sub-optim configuration of the connections group in the PEC application. The stopping time of the survey was extended due to the delay in pursuing the main cause and the votes were expressed during stop.

Jawed Salim Qureshi, a candidate for the position of PEC president, filed a complaint that supported equipment and irregularities in the electoral process, the deviation from the standard electoral operating procedures, verbal instructions that favor the engineer Wasim Nazir (winning candidate) and the non -authorized manual vote during the biometric system. He filed a detailed request to the convener of the electoral committee, where he requested an impartial investigation to ensure justice and electoral integrity. After that, the complaints were transmitted to the Pec.

Pec management, in his response, said that there is no intention of malaja by the electoral committee. After re-verifying and told votes using the C form in 155 polling stations, the applicant’s representatives requested a physical ballot story, claiming that the use of form C was insufficient. However, the committee did not agree and claimed that the accusations are vague and without a factual basis for the story of physical vote.

Another complaint was received regarding the Pec registrar, appointed in March 2021 and granted extension in March 2024. It was claimed that the clerk was promoted to the 22nd in the existing post, which led to the raising of the questions regarding the observance of the established procedures and rules. The term of extension and promotion of the clerk were challenged at the High Court in Lahore. The court, in a written petition of July 3, 2024, guided the Ministry of Science and Technology to issue a speech order after hearing the interested parties and informing the court about the result.

After hearing the interested parties and checked the registration, the Secretary of Science and Technology at that time transmitted that the extension initially granted to the current registrar by the PEC president, by notification of March 19, 2024, was irregular.

Therefore, the clerk was directed to place the order before the governing body for an adequate decision. However, Pec did not comply.

A number of other complaints were also received by the elected members of the management body for the term 2024-27, supporting the illegal formation of the different commissions by the president and clerk in violation of the law and the status. In his response, the Pec claimed that a detailed plan was approved at the management committee meetings. The feedback was gathered from the members of the management body and the work bodies/committees were formed based on the preferences and expertise.