Not authorised: CAA employees challenge privatisation of airports

IHC issues notices to CAA, aviation officials, Privatisation Commission for April 6

ISLAMABAD: The collective bargaining agent and several employees of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) have challenged the reported privatisation of three airports in the country.

In this regard, the Islamabad High Court has issued notices to the secretary aviation division, CAA director general, adviser to prime minister on aviation and the chairman of the Privatisation Commission.



Justice Aamer Farooq issued notices to the respondents to file their replies by April 6.

The Collective Bargaining Agent (CBA) for the CAA and some other employees of CAA had filed a petition in the IHC, through their counsel Hafiz Arfat Ahmad, after the CAA had on February 7 invited proposals from international companies to privatise three airports in Pakistan - the New Islamabad International Airport, Allama Iqbal International Airport in Lahore, and Jinnah International Airport in Karachi.

In the advertisement, the counsel said, CAA had offered companies to take over management and operations of airports including development works, administration and maintenance of airport buildings, allied infrastructure, equipment, systems and other facilities such as ground handling services and future expansions of airport infrastructure including runways, taxiways, car parks etc.

Ahmad said that the airports being privatised were three of the biggest airports in the country where a majority of CAA’s 10,000 employees are deployed. Moreover, the advertisement has created a serious sense of insecurity among thousands of employees.

The lawyer added that the petitioners were surprised why major profit yielding organisations of the government were being privatised. He added that financial performance report of CAA of 2015-2016 showed that CAA had earned over Rs50 billion during the period.

He argued that Section 6 of the CAA Ordinance unambiguously states that CAA shall have control over all civil airports of the country.



Moreover, Ahmad said that when legislative provisions ensure that control of civil airports would remain with the CAA then the authority cannot issue the advertisement seeking applications and proposals from companies to manage it.

CAA, the counsel said, in connivance with other respondents had decided to accommodate some influential groups. He alleged that the decision to privatise three airports had not been taken by the CAA management, rather it had been directed to initiate such process.

“Decision to “accommodate” someone has been taken at some other level and the CAA without any justification is blindly executing the unlawful direction,” he contended.

Ahmad further argued that sovereign rights on airspace can only be ensured when administrative and operational control of airports is retained by the state. Hence, by entrusting it to a private corporate entity would seriously jeopardise that right. While the subject of privatisation of any state-owned enterprise falls within the purview of the Privatization Commission, the process of privatisation initiated by the CAA itself is legally not permitted, he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 20^th, 2017.