The device used by ASF staff to check for explosives is a defective and fake equipment.
PESHAWAR: Yet another terrorist attack at the Karachi airport should expose the glaring irregularities which have made our installations susceptible to danger. Terrorism and corruption within the top echelons of our ruling elite are two cancers responsible for mayhem, murders and chaos which afflicts Pakistan, threatening its very existence as a sovereign and responsible state.
Drive into any airport in Pakistan and an ASF staffer will walk around carrying a device with an antenna to check for explosives, although it has been established that this is a defective and fake equipment, procured by corrupt elements within the powerful establishment. Although the company responsible for this fraud, based in Europe, is under probe, these devices are widely used in Pakistan. Such devices were also being used in Nigeria and a few other countries in Africa, apart from Pakistan.
How can such criminal malpractices be stopped, if those responsible are shielded instead of being hanged? A year has elapsed and the Civil Aviation Authority officials, responsible for pocketing landing and parking fee from foreign and local nonscheduled airlines at the Karachi airport have not been prosecuted and punished.
G Zaman
Published in The Express Tribune, June 12th, 2014.
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