A futile inquiry

Letter June 30, 2014
Its true CAA is not equipped to fight terrorists. But it seems it is not even adequately equipped to extinguish fires.

KARACHI: This is apropos the story, “Inquiry committee absolves CAA, ASF, and fireman of blame” published in The Express Tribune (June 27). The report by the committee is vague, incomplete, total eyewash and has failed to address even the basic questions. The question that remains to be answered is that once all terrorists were killed, what role was played by the aviation authority, the Airport Security Force and the firemen? Instead of pinpointing the individuals who are responsible for negligence, the media has been blamed for exaggerating the incident, whereas it were actually the media that put pressure on the government to start a rescue operation.

The terrorists were killed early in the morning when the cargo complex was still burning. Why weren’t the most modern fire tenders used to extinguish the fire? Why did the airport manager issue a notice to airmen to start operations the next afternoon when the cargo complex was still burning and people lay under the debris? Is this not a most serious violation of aviation security? Is it not a fact that the airport manager had no operational experience? Is it not a fact that the general manager for firefighting was on leave? How ridiculous is the observation that cargo handlers were not trained to meet such emergencies!

It took a whole 28 hours to start the rescue operations. This delay has not been explained. The airport manager and fireman have been suspended for no fault of their own. The manager had no experience — how can we blame him?

It seems that the chief human resource officer had no background in human resource as he appointed unsuitable people to important posts. But of course, this, in isolation, is not a solution. The directors who were newly promoted on May 30, 2014 had no experience and are equally responsible for mishandling, poor coordination and violation — all of which added to the fateful tragedy. These directors work under the Director of Operations, Director for Airport Regulation, Director of Airport Services, Director of Air Transport, Principal Director of Regulatory and the Deputy Director General of the Civil Aviation Authority. The committee did not bother to recommend action against them and found it convenient to simply suspend the airport manager. In fact, what the committee should have done is already being done by the judiciary. The initiative has been taken by the Sindh High Court on a petition filed by a senior officer against illegal promotions and the notification of promotions has been suspended.

It is true that the CAA is not equipped to fight terrorists. But then, it seems that it is not even adequately equipped to extinguish the fire even though its men possess the most modern and expensive fire tenders. The prime minister should reject this report as it does not even answer basic questions of the criminal negligence by various functionaries and order a fresh inquiry through experts who are aware of the many shortcomings of the airport hiring process.

Mukhtar Ahmed

Published in The Express Tribune, July 1st, 2014.

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