Shifting of CAA headquarters

Letter April 04, 2015
It is high time the prime minister took notice of these extravagances by the aviation division

KARACHI: The director general (DG) of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has issued a directive dated March 27, 2015 constituting a committee to examine relocation of the CAA headquarters to Islamabad in the light of directions of the special assistant to the prime minister on aviation, whereas such directives can only be issued by the prime minister and nobody else. Interestingly, although the directive desires the examination of the possibility of relocating the headquarters to Islamabad, the third paragraph unfolds the whole plan as it says that the committee shall submit its report by April 15, 2015 and would then also be involved in implementing the approved findings/recommendations of the report. This strongly indicates that the decision has already been taken but to give it official cover, a committee has been set up. In 1984-85, when General Ziaul Haq desired to shift the State Bank of Pakistan, PIA and the CAA headquarters to Islamabad, his wish could not see the light of the day mainly because the idea was absurd.

The main purpose of this shifting is to hire premises belonging to an influential person in the Blue Area at a monthly rent of Rs15 million as already reported in the media. The shifting of the headquarter will serve no other purpose except to comply with illegal orders. The CAA spent crores of rupees on shifting its headquarters from Liaquat Barracks to the old Terminal No 1 Building in 1999 and established new offices befitting international standards. It still has ample space to accommodate more offices. Like the disastrous new aviation policy, shifting of the CAA headquarters to Islamabad is a sheer waste of public money at a time when Pakistan is under heavy debt and living on IMF loans. The CAA is the only organisation in the country that is earning over Rs60 billion per year, with around Rs40 billion being received from airlines on account of aeronautical charges just by billing. Massive corruption of billions of rupees in the CAA was unearthed by audit authorities during the construction of the new Benazir Bhutto International Airport in Islamabad. The former DG of the CAA was sacked by the Supreme Court in September 2013 and his appointment was declared illegal ab initio but the decision was not implemented in full, as the chief of human resource, and the chief operating transition advisers in Islamabad and Multan were not removed from office.

The CAA has miserably failed in performing its duties and it seems that its purpose is to induct people at high salaries and award contracts to friends of top officials without any rationale. It is high time the prime minister took notice of these extravagances by the aviation division and stop the shifting of CAA headquarter, for which there is no justification and which will be detrimental to the interest of the people, the organisation and the state. I hope someone is listening.

Mukhtar Ahmed

Published in The Express Tribune, April 5th, 2015.

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