LAHORE -  The federal government has decided that the domestic construction companies will be responsible to hire services of ‘internee engineers’ instead of ‘supervisory engineers’ to ease financial burden on the construction companies, which they were facing because of the revision of guidelines by the Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC).

The new guidelines had been implemented for the fresh and renewal of constructor’s license from January 1, 2017. Nevertheless, it had created problems of the constructors in renewal of licenses. The renewals for the year 2017 are still pending due to requirement/availability of Supervisory Engineers.

A Constructors Association of Pakistan (CAP) delegation headed by its Chairman Sikandar Hayyat Khattak raised the issue in a meeting with Science and Technology Federal Secretary Fazal Abbas Maken the other day. PEC representative Engr Ameer Zameer informed the meeting that the Standing Committee on Science and Technology had already changed the condition and now it would be mandatory for the construction companies to hire internee engineers. The company will be responsible to pay Rs5,000 per month to any such internee engineer while rest of the pay will be paid by the government.

The CAP delegation had complained in the meeting that the supervisory engineers were demanding Rs200,000 to 300,000 per year without work. In some cases they are selling their Supervisory Certificates. CAP feels that when the engineer has no practical experience, how he can supervise the work. He should first get the training in his trade and he should be designated as trainee engineer, Khattak recommended. He also said that the PEC should not delay issuance of constructor’s licenses citing supervisory engineer’s recruitment as an issue.