The Ministry of Housing and Works had issued a notification on 30th March 2021 declaring that 10 percent of the posts of the executive engineer (Civil) (BS-18) are to be allocated and reserved for promotion of assistant executive engineer (Civil) (BS-17), possessing B-Tech degree to the post of the executive engineer (QS) (BS-18) and that such executive engineers (BS-18) shall not carry out duties as professional engineers.
Four executive engineers (Civil) of Pakistan Public Works Department (PWD) challenged and impugned the notification in Islamabad high court stating that the job description of an executive engineer involved essential engineering functions and such functions could only be discharged by a licensed engineer according to the provision of the Pakistan Engineer Council (PEC) Act, 1976. As the B-Tech degree is not recognised as an engineering qualification by the PEC the issued notification issued by the ministry came under scrutiny.
Justice Babar Sattar in his judgement stated that as per the judgments of the Supreme Court, PEC is the regulator of engineering professionals and only such persons can be licensed as professional engineers who have recognised engineering degrees and licensed by the PEC in accordance with the rules and regulations framed under the PEC Act. “What the federal government can certainly not do is declare that a post that involves discharging, performing or supervising professional engineering work is to be filled by someone who is not a professional engineer as defined under Section 2(xxiii) of the PEC Act subject to the condition that such non-engineer will not perform professional engineering work while serving against a post that requires performance of professional engineering work,” the judgment said.
