Engineering Post Report
More than 45 thousand civil, mechanical, textile and other disciplines engineers are jobless in the country for varying durations, exploring all avenues for their employment and waiting for any positive response from contractors, firms and other employers for securing employment on reasonable terms.
There is also a list of 27245 engineers on the website of the Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC) who had applied for registration with it for securing employment on reasonable terms with some good employers on the basis of their qualifications but their submitted documents have been found to be invalid somehow.
There are more than 100 engineering universities and colleges in Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pukhtoonkhwa, Balochistan provinces. Punjab has the highest number of 52 engineering education related institutions and Balochistan has the lowest number, only 02.
As per recent survey, around 25000 engineers graduate every year and roughly 0.26 million engineers are registered with the PEC.
PEC intends to provide a platform from which acts as a bridge between employers and job seeking engineers. PEC has no responsibility for the job/business agreement between the employers and employees and any situation arising out of it.
Pakistan Engineering Council was established under act of the Parliament in January 1976 with its headquarters in Islamabad as a statutory body working for regulating engineering professional quality of engineering education and functioning as a key driving force for achieving rapid and sustainable growth in all national economic and social fields, as per information available from PEC website.
A letter of Swabi-based engineer titled ” Unemployed Engineers” recently published in the newspapers is reproduced here as it throws some light on the problems of the unemployed engineers.
It reads “In Pakistan, the situation is very grave for engineers. According to a report by Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC) published in March 2021, over 100,000 engineers are jobless in our country. In some cases, graduates of the year 2015, 2016 and 2017 are seen looking for job opportunities but to no avail. PEC is solely responsible for providing jobs to engineers and regulating the construction industry. However, it has failed miserably in stopping unethical practices such as card selling and the low wages of engineers.
“In the country, thousands of engineers are forced to sell out their engineering licenses at very low prices. For example, an engineer told me that he sold his card for one year at the market cost of Rs 80,000. The reason behind this, he answered, was poor job market. Mafias and agents are actively involved in these unethical practices on Facebook and WhatsApp, however, PEC has turned a blind eye to them. Neither it has taken any concrete steps towards curbing these malpractices from the noble profession of engineers nor did it facilitate engineers in finding jobs.
“Another issue with the engineering profession, specifically civil engineers, is the low salary. The average salary that contractors pay to engineers is approximately Rs 20,000 which is less than even the minimum wages of unskilled workers (Rs 25000 per month). However, contractors show Rs 60000 to Rs 70000 salaries paid to engineers to PEC in documents. If any engineer raises his voice against this injustice, then he will lose his job as a punishment.
“PEC need to step in and fulfill its responsibilities of providing and creating jobs for engineers in Pakistan. It should demand monthly bank statements from contractors that whether they paid salaries to engineers or not. This step will make it nearly impossible for contractors to buy licences from engineers. Most importantly, it will also solve the issue of low salaries. Such steps will not eradicate unethical practices from the construction industry but also help the government in generating revenues through documentation of the economy”.
