An Engineer or not

I wrote the following rant as a comment on Hackaday, but then decided to post the long version here and add a link over there :)

Hackaday Link: https://hackaday.com/2023/12/18/when-is-an-engineer-not-an-engineer-when-hes-a-canadian-engineer/

LONG RANT AHEAD
some of which may be outdated
I havent checked for current accuracy or correctness

we similarly have something called a PEC – Pakistan Engineering Council – they accreditate universities and also specific programs and batches – if your bachelors / engineering program isn’t accredited, you can’t register with them. [1]

Upon registering you become an RE – Registered Engineer [2]

Then in about 3 to 5 years you must accumulate points called CPD or CPE – Continuing Professional Development or Continuing Professional Education (by attending or conducting seminars / courses) these work like how academic papers work (at least in some places, imho) – you refer me, I refer you – you train me, I train you. [3]

Once you have accrued enough points, you become eligible to take what is called an EPE – Engineering Practice Examination, I heard its difficult – though I never actually bothered to check [4]

If you pass EPE, you become a PE – PROFESSIONAL ENGINEER – then you get to sign off on papers that require a PE’s signature and companies hire you so that you can sign on their papers (they don’t need you to work on anything, just sign) and so they can bid on projects and tenders that require a PE on the payroll. [5]

During all this process, you get the privilege to pay various fee and charges at every turn and get loads of forms to fill and provide multiple photocopies of every identity / academic document you could possibly have. [6]

There are also elections for PEC – which I am not sure why they happen.

Also, they accreditate a particular batch of a particular program of a university in its last year – so if you are studying and they decide that your particular batch of students is no good (most likely because your university/institute failed to have the right dimension of library or the latest in bureaucratic nuances or they failed to hire enough MS/PhDs or maybe just forgot to fill in a form) – YOU ARE OUT OF LUCK – you can’t ever become an RE or a PE [7]

I got my degree about 10 years ago – haven’t worked in purely engineering fields, but have done loads of work which could be classified as such – I don’t write engineer with my name – but it is mentioned on my site and linked in.