Life with WAPDA (1984-2020) – Part 1 of 4

 

It was my adolescence time during 1975-77 that I read much of the Urdu and a little bit of Sindhi literature apart from my academic books. The travelogues, in Sindhi, of a Marine Engineer Mr. Altaf Shaikh had a huge impact on me. I just wanted to emulate him by joining the Marine Academy in Karachi. After passing Intermediate exam with good grades I shared the same desire with my family especially father who by then was a petty contractor in provincial Irrigation Department. I was straight away instructed to purse Civil Engineering and become an Irrigation Engineer. That’s it.

Completing Bachelors of Civil Engineering from NED University of Engineering and Technology in August 1983 was an honour and achievement of great milestone of my young life. Like most of my classmates I also wanted to win a scholarship and do Masters from the US (first priority) or British University. Doing Masters from a foreign or local university on own expenses was simply out of question/affordability. Joining Irrigation Department or Communication and Works (C&W) Department along with seeking scholarships was the next option. However, nature had had some other planning for me; it sent me to Lahore in December 1983 to join WAPDA after I went through appointment process. The irony was that joining WAPDA was my last priority among tens of federal and provincial organizations. Eventually I was forced to join it in January 1984 owing to my family’s deteriorating and feeble financial position. I was supposed to support them with my income, rather paltry income though.

I started working with WAPDA half-heartedly, aiming to resign it as soon as I have had a better alternate opportunity. It was not forthcoming soon though. I was working at Kalabagh Dam Project site in Pirpehai, district Mianwali when the Project (technically feasible and economically viable) was politicized and became bone of contention among the provinces and WAPDA was advised by the federal govt. to slow down the award of project in 1985. In the meanwhile, my senior colleagues helped in getting me transferred to Hyderabad Sindh in July 1985.

Few trivial but interesting events to share about being at Kalabagh:

·       Soon after joining I started reading all technical documents about the project to get acquainted with the scope and progress of work. A high level meeting chaired by World Bank representative took place at the site wherein foreign and local consultants along with senior WAPDA officers participated. We, some newly appointed junior engineers, were also allowed to participate to gain a learning experience. During the meeting, the Chair asked a question, meaning of an abbreviation. All remained dumb. I replied him spontaneously since I had read it recently in the technical documents. When the meeting was over everyone appreciated me for saving them from the embarrassment.

·       Within a month of my arrival at Kalabagh I was given a proforma by the Admn. to fill in for sending the same back to WAPDA House. It was a kind of biodata and dates of joining WAPDA and retirement were to be recorded. When I wrote down date of retirement as 31.08.2020 I was literally petrified. I kept looking at the year of my retirement: 2020. It was a far reality in early 1984. It was simply indigestible to stomach and unthinkable to mind. I just shook up my head and said back to me; never mind, 2020 is not going to come!

·       Four of us, junior engineers, from Kalabagh appeared for our departmental promotion examination (Four papers) in Lahore in January 1985. About a month later four envelopes in our respective names arrived through postal service and received by our senior engineer. He did not open but observed them closely. He called all four of us in his office and said: Your results are here. I have not unsealed the envelopes but by looking them from outside I can firmly declare that only Pitafi sb has cleared the complete exam while others have cleared in parts. We were astounded. I was excited, naturally, on his guessing. We opened the envelopes hurriedly and found our results exactly the same way our senior engineer had predicted earlier. Now we asked him to explain how he could guess it correctly. He smiled and said: Few people clear the complete examination in one attempt. Pitafi’s envelope contains a single sheet only therefore the envelope weighted light while others had more than 20 sheets. These envelopes weighted thick and heavy. So, I had passed the exam along with 4 others in entire WAPDA while rest of 100s of candidates cleared either one, two or three papers.       

After joining SCARPs Monitoring Organization (SMO) in Hyderabad it was revealed to me that it was not an ideal office to work with for an engineer’s career propagation. I found it blessing in disguise because I never wanted to keep working with WAPDA anymore. Between 1985 and 1991 I appeared in two TOEFL exams (getting good marks on both occasions), applied for Science and Technology Scholarship (twice), Asian Institute of Technology Scholarship, East-West Scholarship, and what not but failed to earn any of them. My colleague and friends advised me to do Masters in Mehran University of Engineering and Technology, Jamshoro and argued that at the end of day people/employer would only ask whether you have done Masters or not, they would not ask name of the institution. I ignored them on the grounds that either I would do from a better or an equivalent university, even if it was local/in-country.

Besides, I appeared in job interviews for Irrigation Deptt., C&W Deptt. and Pakistan Railways but fared badly in the interviews. I don’t blame them for their partiality or question the integrity of selection committees. Eventually in early 1992, I realized that my destiny was written with WAPDA and I needed to excel here. With some hectic efforts and a fairly long visit of nearly a fortnight to Lahore that I succeeded in getting myself transferred to Lakhra Coal Power Project near Khanot village, Distt. Dadu. I joined it in March 1992. It was a field job with lot of opportunities to learn and a responsible position to supervise construction activities. By then I had given up the decision to leave WAPDA and suppressed the desire of doing Masters. I kept working here till 1998 and earned reputation of an excellent worker/engineer. (Next…..Part 2/4)