RAWALPINDI: The Senate Standing Committee on Aviation maintained that the Supreme Court has nothing to do with the management of the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) and directed the PIA to share the court’s decision that allowed it to recruit 205 new professionals, including 80 pilots.

The meeting held at Parliament House on Thursday was chaired by Senator Hidayatullah. It discussed the Supreme Court’s recent decision, which allowed the PIA to recruit 205 skilled employees, including pilots, cabin crew and IT experts.

The PIA officials informed the committee that the court allowed the PIA to recruit cabin crew, IT professionals and 80 pilots on contract for one year.

The PIA officials informed the meeting that one of the major obstacles in the implementation of the decision was that $15,000 to 20,000 were required for the 8-10 month training of pilots and there was no legal binding which barred the pilots from joining other airlines after the initial contract.

Standing committee asks PIA to resolve problems faced by Balochistan passengers

During the meeting, Senator Saleem Mandviwalla termed the former aviation minister’s claim of “fake pilots” as “ill-advised”. He said the ex-minister was misinformed which caused serious damage to the PIA and the country. He suggested that the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) should resolve the issue in line with its rules without interference from the Federal Investigation Agency and the court of law.

The PPP senator said that the whole matter regarding the pilots should have been taken up by the CAA according to its rules as he believed that there was no need for registration of FIRs. “Even a student pilot jailed,” he added.

The Senate committee adopted the report of the sub-committee constituted to resolve the issues of licences.

Balochistan flights

The committee members expressed concern over the cancellation of flights from Balochistan. It asked the PIA management to resolve the issue faced by people travelling to and from Quetta. The Senate body was briefed by the representatives of PIA on the details of flights cancelled from airports of Balochistan in the last two months.

The PIA officials apprised that 49 flights were delayed in April and nine flights were delayed in June. However, the delay was caused due to financial and crew constraints and the flights would be normalised after the completion of post-Haj operations, the officials assured.

Senator Saleem Mandviwalla suggested that PIA work with private airlines so that the passengers from Balochistan could be accommodated. The committee resolved to invite private airlines to the following meeting and advised the PIA to draw up a workable plan for Balochistan.

Moreover, the committee expressed dissatisfaction with the details of employees submitted by the PIA. Senator Hidayatullah directed that complete details with experience and present posting of employees should be submitted in the next meeting.

Additionally, the Senate committee took up the matter of PIA employees’ appointments on fake degrees.

The FIA officials informed the meeting that challan in 15 cases against the 260 nominated employees have been submitted; however, the Special Committee on Affected Employees directed the withdrawal of cases.

Senator Hidayatullah maintained that employees having fake degrees should not be spared at any cost and that the recommendation of the standing committee should be implemented.

Senator Dr Afnanullah Khan inquired about the number of active pensioners drawing pensions from Pakistan International Airline Corporation (PIAC) and how much pension is being given to widows of employees.

The PIA officials informed that as of now, 15,000 employees were drawing pensions, out of which 5,000 are widows who have been paid Rs2,000 to 3,000 every month. While expressing concern, the committee recommended that the pension of widows should be increased to at least Rs5,000.

Published in Dawn, July 7th, 2023