KWSB yet ‘to implement court order, Sindh govt directives to appoint professional engineers’

The management of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) has still not implemented, despite the lapse of 10 months, the directives of the Supreme Court and orders of the Sindh government, which said that no B-Tech or diploma holder shall be allowed to perform professional engineering work in government departments who does not possess accredited engineering qualification and is registered as engineer.

The Sindh local government in January had directed the all relevant departments, including the KWSB, to ensure compliance with the court order that the government not allow or permit any person to perform professional engineering work as defined in the Pakistan Engineering Council Act who does not possess accredited engineering qualification from the accredited engineering institution and his name is not registered as registered engineer or professional engineer under the PEC Act.

Sources said on Saturday that the KWSB constituted a six-member committee, headed by the chief engineer, to suggest appropriate administrative measures to accommodate all DAE, B-Tech and B-Tech (hons) holders at their right place of work, and change nomenclatures of their posts with job descriptions saving their service rights and channel of promotions as per rules. The committee was to also suggest the service structure within the sanctioned schedule of establishment and or if required by (SNE) schedule new establishment of the KWSB to implement the apex court order in its letter and spirit.

Despite recommendations of the committee, the sources said, no progress had however been made to implement the directives of the court and government orders over the past 10 months, and several officers having diploma and B-Tech degrees had been allowed to work on professional engineering or executive posts, which was a sheer violation of the court orders and government directives.

They said several government departments, including engineering institutes of the government such as Public Health Engineering, Karachi Metropolitan Corporation KMC Engineering, Education Department, had complied with the directives of the court, but the KWSB, which was an engineering department, had not yet implemented the order in letter and spirit.