Editorial
Once celebrated as the backbone of national development, Pakistan’s engineering profession today finds itself marred by decline—and at the heart of this failure lies the Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC). Established in 1976 to regulate the engineering profession and guide Pakistan’s technical advancement, PEC has morphed into a licensing bureau for contractors and consultants more interested in profits than progress.
Engineers once helped shape Pakistan’s economic glory in the 1960s and 70s, driving infrastructure, innovation, and industrial expansion. Today, they are absent from national problem-solving. From chronic power failures to failing water systems, engineers have ceded ground to politicians and generalists ill-equipped to tackle technical challenges. PEC, instead of leading, has become a passive observer.
Its failure is most visible in its inability to enforce quality standards. The term “PEC-registered contractor” has become synonymous with cost overruns and corruption. Even private citizens avoid them, fearing poor workmanship. Meanwhile, PEC’s original mandate—to act as a national think tank—has faded into irrelevance. A mere nine technical codes in five decades is a dismal output for an institution of its stature.
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The recent formation of an advisory committee to compensate for PEC’s failures is telling. It tacitly admits that the current body is broken. Once hosting federal ministers to integrate engineering into policymaking, PEC is now reduced to a battleground for elite groups vying for influence.
Pakistan’s engineering legacy—from Mohenjo-daro to modern mega-projects—deserves more. It is time to end the contractor-led capture of PEC and restore leadership to credible, professional engineers. A reformed PEC must champion innovation, enforce standards, and reclaim its position as a visionary institution.
For a country struggling with infrastructure decay and climate challenges, engineering isn’t optional—it’s existential. Pakistan cannot afford another decade of PEC’s silence.
