HYDERABAD, Nov 11: Federal Defence Minister Syed Naveed Qamar has said the Pakistan International Airlines plans to expand its operations to Far East region after buying eight aircraft.

“PIA is buying five narrow and three wide body planes on lease and the national airliner plans to expand operations to Far East countries as well to improve income generation,” he said.

The federal minister was talking to journalists during a visit to Hyderabad Airport and training institute of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) on Sunday. He was accompanied by CAA Director General Khalid Chaudhry and other officials concerned.

The minister said that PIA operated direct flights even to Europe and served better than other airliners which usually had transit flight operations but its performance was scuttled by lack of aircraft.

He said that PIA had the best of engineers when compared to other countries. “I think we can provide maintenance service to foreign airliners. Instead of sending our aircraft to other countries their aircraft can be brought here for maintenance because we have the best engineering facilities here,” he said.

He underscored the need for increasing cargo operations, an area which he said remained under-utilised. “It can be expanded to buttress the airlines’ income generation,” he said.

Mr Qamar said that upcountry passengers demanded revival of flights from Hyderabad airport and said he would ask the PIA to include planes in schedule of flights from Hyderabad.

About CAA’s training institute, the minister said that it was one of the best training institutes, which should also expand its services. He said he had given instructions in this regard to officials concerned to look into possibilities of imparting training in management related courses and fire-fighting system.

He said that CAA had got one of the best schools of the country here with more capacity. Children of local communities could be given space there, he said.

“The institute can consider the option of training civil defence volunteers from other parts of the country and providing ancillary training to volunteers as this kind of training is not imparted anywhere in the country,” he said.

Mr Qamar pointed out that Hyderabad airport was not yet as functional as it was planned. He had visited the airport to apprise himself of issues about its runway and surface, he said.

“There were some complaints about the runway being bumpy and cracked. I have asked DG of CAA to submit a report on it within three days,” he said.

If it needed urgent and minor repairs it would be done in three to four months to make it usable again, he said.

Answering a question, he said there was no constitutional provision to allow delay in polls. The present government would complete its term on March 16 and then the nation would go to polls within 60 days, he said.

It was indeed a good news for the country that a democratic government was going to complete its full five-year tenure and a smooth transition of power was to take place.

“But certain people are talking about their own interests repeatedly,” he said and added that there was no constitutional provision to postpone the polls.