By Abdul Qadir Qureshi
(Pakistan News & Features Services)
(Pakistan News & Features Services)
The newly elected President of the Institution of Engineers Pakistan (IEP), Syed Jamshed Ali Rizvi, has vowed to make the institution a real forum for the progress of engineers of Pakistan.
In a chat, soon after his election as President in which he secured 1465 votes as against over 1100 bagged by his closest rival, Jameshed Rizvi expressed his desire to make the institution more proactive.
“I have chalked out an active program for the Institution to infuse a new spirit into its body,” he said, adding that the IEP will be made a real engineer’s voice at the national level.
He pointed out that the IEP today has a total membership of about 28,000 engineers of Pakistan whom it will represent in a more effective manner to get their immediate problems solved.
Jamshed Rizvi, who held the office of Chairman IEP, Karachi Chapter, for the last three years, regretted that non-engineers are being preferred over engineers in various ministries and departments and he will launch a struggle to get the engineers their due rights.
He remarked that the various departments which should be headed by engineers are being headed by non-engineers and as such these departments were not producing the required results.
Jamshed Rizvi was of the opinion that the qualified engineers were not being paid the salary in accordance with their qualification and experience while the non-engineers working on their seats were being paid highly.
He said that when an engineer joins any department in Grade 17 he or she retires either in the same grade or just a grade higher.
“It has been the practice for the last many years. It’s about that the efforts should be made at the relevant levels to press for the just rights of the engineers,” the IEP President stressed.
He said that he was in the process of preparing a calendar of events to be organized during his three-year term.
As Chairman IEP Karachi, Jamshed Rizvi had organized the 45th Convention of Engineers which was attended by 28 foreign delegates from Sri Lanka, Nepal, Canada, Italy, UK, and USA besides delegates the delegates from Pakistan.
He said that during his three-year term he will also focus on having a separate new building for Karachi IEP to be constructed either in place of present building or on the space at the back of present premises for which renowned architects will be hired.
Jamshed Rizvi also revealed that the IEP offices in Lahore, Islamabad and Quetta will be renovated while the Peshawar office was under construction and will be completed in due course of time.
