Man sues airlines for Rs5.6 million

Says he missed an int’l conference because of airlines’ negligence.

LAHORE:

A consumer court on Saturday issued notices to PIA’s managing director and its station manager at the Allama Iqbal International Airport Lahore for March 29.

The complainant has sued the national carrier for an amount of Rs5.6 million in damages, for allegedly providing poor service.

Attiqur Rehman told the court that he had suffered mental anguish as a direct result of the negligence of the airport authorities who misplaced his luggage including a bag containing important documents. Rehman was invited to the 41st Union World Conference on Lung Health in Berlin. On November 9, 2010 the complainant travelled via PIA from Lahore to Paris to attend the conference.

He said that when he reached Paris, he waited for his luggage but learnt finally that it had been misplaced by the airlines. It was really cold, he told the court, and he was running a fever by the time he reached his hotel after spending six hours at the airport.

Rehman told the court that he could not attend the conference after his research paper and other documents went missing. He told the court that he had to spend 500 euros on clothes and other essential articles while waiting in Paris for the airline to locate his luggage, 1,750 euros on food and hotel, 3,000 euros on medical treatment, 200 euros on local transport and 500 euros as registration fee for the conference. On the seventh day the airlines returned his lost baggage but it was already too late as the conference had ended.

He prayed the court to direct the respondents to pay Rs5.6 million in damages. The court has summoned the respondents for March 29.

Mashhood Tajwar, a spokesperson for PIA, said that he was unaware of the matter. He said that it would be premature to comment on the issue but added, “Only if the same thing happened to all the passengers on the flight, will it be fair to say that it was PIA’s fault.” PIA public relations manager in Lahore, Mrs Haroon, said that the PIA would probe the matter and compensate the passenger, if it concluded that its staff had been at fault.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 6^th, 2011.