Govt contemplating to resolve  B.Tech degree’s equivalence  issue

SPECIAL REPORT IBD: As the government takes a major policy shift to promote technical and vocational education in the country, setting up of Pakistan Technology Council (PTC) is under active consideration of the government to resolve the issue of educational equivalence of various technical education programmes with the formal education qualification.
An official source told Technology Times that the Ministry of Science and Technology has sought suggestions from the private sector to ascertain the demand of setting up an autonomous body, PTC, to regulate the technical and vocational education. He said that the promotion of technical and vocational education was supported by the donors community, which also wants their wide acceptability to provide job opportunities to the large number of qualified youth.
The need for PTC was felt as the highest technical education qualification of B-Tech is still not accepted as a formal degree equivalent to the B. Sc Engineering by the Pakistan Engineering Council.
Chairman Pakistan Council of Technologists (PCT), Prof. Javed Iqbal told this scribe that Secretary Ministry of Science and Technology Akhlaq Ahmad Tarar in a recent meeting had agreed to establish a separate body to resolve the longstanding issues of B-Tech graduates.
He said that the ministry always invited comments from public departments where engineers were heading the departments, however, they never gave comments in the favour of B-Tech graduates due to their biased approach. Therefore, the proposal was floated to invite the comments from the private sector.
B-Tech graduates are deprived of access to higher studies, job opportunities and promotions in the public departments as their degree of B-Tech (Hons) is not accepted equivalent to BSc/BE from the last 40 years.
“The technologists holding B-Tech qualification have filed several cases in courts and got 17 decisions in their favour, declaring their degree equivalent to B.Sc/BE but no decision is implemented so far. The HEC and FPSC also recognize the B-Techs at par with the BSc engineers,” he explained.
It is to be mentioned that in Punjab, only B.Tech degree is being offered at the Govt. College of Technologies under TEVTA and other private sector universities. These GCTs are affiliated with related UETs that are focusing only on the Engineering Degrees on the directives of PEC.
Engr Waseem Raja , Chairman, Pakistan Society of B.Tech Engineers (PSBTE), told this scribe, “In a recently held meeting, we had explained to the Ministry of Science and Technology that a recently held survey of several technical departments, more than 65 per cent Intermediate and DAE students are getting admission in Engineering Technology (B.Tech/BSc Tech) rather than Engineering Sciences (BE/BSc Engg). So it establishes the fact that PTC establishment is desperately needed in order to protect the future of over 500,000 graduates.”
There is a basic difference between Engineering Sciences and Engineering Technology as the Engineering Sciences are related to designed and analytical field of engineering while Engineering Technology is a field of planning, control and applied engineering.
Experts are of the opinion that in Pakistan, where about 90 per cent of the machines are imported, operated and maintained, B-Tech graduates have more practical experience of handling the equipment that the B.Sc engineers, having skills only of designing machines, have very little scope in the country.
They supported the idea of setting up PTC as it would more successfully handle the qualification issues of technical and vocational education.

FEDERAL PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION

RECRUITMENT WING

Subject:- MINUTES OF MEETING CONVENED AT THE FEDERAL PUBLIC 

SERVICE COMMISSION (FPSC) TO DISCUSS THE STATUS/ 

EQUIVALENCE OF DEGREES AWARDED TO TECHNOLOGISTS

On the request of the Chairman, Pakistan Council of Technologists (PCT) 

to the Chairman FPSC to discuss and seek solution to the problems being faced 

by technologists, a meeting on the subject was convened at 10.00 AM on 19-02-

2011 in the FPSC Conference Room.

2.      The meeting was chaired by Maj. Gen. (Retd) Ovais Mushtaq Qureshi, 

Member FPSC. The following officers attended the meeting.

i. Mr. Sadiq Ali Anjum, Director General (Recruitment), FPSC.

ii. Mr. Rahim Baksh Channa, Director General (A&A) HEC.

iii. Mr. M. Javeed Khan, Advisor HEC.

iv. Mr. Anjum Pervez Addl.General Manager, (Infrastructure) Pakistan 

Railways.

v. Brig. Mushtaq Ahmad, DR&S, E-in-C’s Branch DP&A Dte, GHQ, 

Rawalpindi.

vi. Engr. Z.M. Peracha, Secretary/Registrar, Pakistan Engineering 

Council (PEC).

vii. Engr. Dr. Nasir Mahmood Khan, Additional Registrar, PEC.

viii. Mr. Zafar Iqbal Minhas, MTLA, PEC.

ix. Mr. Safdar, Superintending Engineer, Pak. PWD.

x. Mr. Ramiz Ahmad Director (FS), FPSC.

xi. Mr. Azmat Hayat Malik, Director (T&S), FPSC.

xii. A delegation from the Pakistan Council of Technologists 

comprising:-

a. Prof. Javed Iqbal, Chairman,

b. M. Farooq Raja, Secretary,

c. Muhammad Tahir,

d. Abid Bukhari,

e. Ijar Sulehri, 

f. Imam Buksh,

g. M. Yaqoob Raza,

h. Khurshid Shanwari.Page 2 of 5

3.        Mr. Naguib Ullah Malik, Member FPSC could not attend the meeting due 

to his preoccupation.

4.        After recitation from the Holy Quran, the chair welcomed the participants 

and apprised the meeting that the main agenda and purpose of the meeting was 

to take all stakeholders on board on the issue of equivalence of B.Tech (Hons) 

degree and resolve its relationship/equivalence with Bachelor of Engineering.  

Thereafter, representatives of the Pakistan Council of Technologists (PCT) were 

asked to give presentation on the issue. 

5.        Secretary, (PCT) presented that since the inception of B.Tech Programme 

in 1973, the B.Tech (Hons) degree has been treated as equivalent to Bachelor of 

Engineering and as such the B.Tech (Hons) degree holders are being recruited 

for posts where the required qualification is BE.  In support of his claim, he stated 

that the disciplines of engineering and technology overlap each other and there 

are a lot of commonalities between the two.  He also cited a decision of HEC 

wherein HEC had recognized the B.Tech (Hons) degree equivalent to BE 

degree.                                                         

Another justification that was cited was the Judgment of the Supreme Court 

taken in Suo Moto Review Petition 52 of 1993 (Annex-I) which related to 

equivalence of B.Tech (Hons) degree with BE degree.                     

He and the other participants of PCT argued that the degree of B.Tech (Hons) 

should be treated at par with BE and the recruitment of B.Tech (Hons) degree 

holders against the posts where BE is the required qualification be accepted by  

FPSC which had ruled that B.Tech (Hons) degree is not acceptable where B.E. is 

the prescribed qualification on the basis of resolutions passed by the PEC in its 

22

nd

Annual General Body Meeting held on 17.4.2010 and HEC vide their letter 

dated 1.9.2010 (Annexes II & III).

6.        On the issues brought out by Secretary, PCT, the views expressed by 

other stakeholders and their stance on these issues was as under:

HEC: The Adviser HEC reiterated their earlier stance taken in HEC’s 39

th

Meeting held on 12.2.1998 according to which the two degrees do have 

some commonalities of subjects but are not to be treated as equivalent to 

one another. However they contended that the employer is the best judge Page 3 of 5

to determine the type of qualification required for a particular job. (The 

HEC decision is attached as Annex-III):

(i) MES/E-in-C: The representative of E-in-C stated that on the basis of their 

past experience it was the considered opinion of GHQ that the holders of 

B.Tech (Hons) could only be suitably employed in BS-16 posts unless 

otherwise provided in the recruitment rules. But to recruit them directly 

against posts in grade 17 and above where B.E is the required 

qualification is not appropriate because they do not possess the desired

level of knowledge and expertise possessed by holders of BE degree and 

doing so would be unfair for the profession of Engineering. If the two 

degrees are accepted as equivalent then the quality of work relating to 

Engineering is likely to be seriously compromised. 

(ii) Railways: The representative of the Railways was of the view that though 

the technologists are contributing a lot in his department, the absence of 

any regulatory regime to standardize the curriculum and qualification 

standards of B.Tech (Hons) degree inhibits the recruitment of holders of 

B.Tech (Hons) against posts requiring degree of Bachelors of 

Engineering. 

(iii) Pak PWD: The representative was of the view that pre-requisites for 

admission in disciplines of B.Tech and B.E. should also be taken into 

account while taking decision on equivalence of the two degrees which,

according to him, can never be treated as equivalent.

(iv) PEC: The representative of PEC stated that the B.Tech (Hons) degree is 

not accredited by PEC. In fact “Technology” and “Engineering” are two 

separate and distinct streams, with different, distinct syllabi and 

programme objectives. This has also been the considered view of all the 

Vice-Chancellors of UETs, who are themselves the degree awarding 

authorities. Under the provisions of the PEC Act, the “Accredited 

Engineering Qualification” means any of the qualifications included in First 

Schedule or Second Schedule of the Act. The B.Tech (Pass) or B.Tech 

(Hons) had never been included in the said schedules. [In the recent past Page 4 of 5

the PEC in its 22

nd

Annual General Body Meeting has adopted two 

resolutions regarding non acceptance of B.Tech degree as equivalent to 

B.E. degree vide their letter dated 15.11.2010 (Annex-IV).

According to PEC, the regulations and monitoring of “Technology” 

education in Pakistan had not been assigned to any Regulatory Body 

which not only caused deterioration, but resulted in frustration amongst 

the technologists.

7.       Representatives of the FPSC informed the participants that as far as 

recruitment through FPSC is concerned, it is made strictly in accordance with the 

recruitment rules notified by the concerned Ministries/ Divisions/Departments. 

For equivalence/relevance of educational qualifications, FPSC depends on the 

advice of the HEC or other statutory regulatory bodies such as PEC, PMDC, 

PNC, etc. Since PCT is not a statutory body, it does not fall within this category.  

If notified recruitment rules require a BE degree, against it only candidates 

possessing a BE degree can be appointed. The technologists/ PCT may 

approach the users i.e. the departments concerned to provide for the qualification 

of B.Tech (Hons) degree in the recruitment rules of the respective posts, if it suits 

the end users. The department can re-evaluate the requirement of utilization of 

B.Tech (Hons) degree for various posts filled through FPSC and accordingly 

appropriate provisions in the rules for B.Tech (Hons) be created, if so desired. Till 

then the FPSC will continue to be guided by the PEC Act 1976 as amended from 

time to time, and decision of HEC and PEC of not accepting both the degrees as

equivalent will be accepted. The contention of the Technologists that the B.Tech 

(Hons) degree has been accepted as equivalent to B.E. by the HEC has also not 

been proved or supported by the HEC itself. The HEC’s stance is that both the 

degrees have some commonalities and it is for the employer to determine their 

suitability for a particular job. The employers and the major stakeholders i.e. the 

MES, Railways, PWD etc have also categorically reiterated and supported the 

stance taken by the FPSC that the posts be filled strictly in accordance with the 

notified Recruitments Rules and in conformity with the qualifications specified 

therein.Page 5 of 5

8.         After deliberations it was resorted that the Ministry of Science & 

Technology being the regulatory authority of the PEC be asked to regularise the 

B.Tech (Hons) degree programme by enactment in PEC Act or through a 

separate council/act. In case a separate council is created its probable clash on

the interactive points with PEC should not be ignored. Till regularization of 

B.Tech programme and its proper monitoring at certain levels, the quality of its 

degree holders would remain in question.

(Sadiq Ali Anjum)

Director General (R&S)