Why the CAA should sell off a cash-cow is a puzzle, and the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday ordered the CAA to submit by 13 June all documents including those that the CAA is terming ‘confidential’ and relating to the privatisation of the airports. Because the documents are supposedly ‘confidential’ their contents are not (yet) in the public domain and the CAA is keen to keep things that way. The strong suspicion is that they contain details of a vested interest that will be the preferred bidder for the privatisation contract. The CAA position is that they are presenting the documents merely for the ‘perusal’ of the IHC and that does not include disclosure. The court is not happy about this and nor should they be.
It is the opinion of the court that it has to examine the documents and may quote from them in its final order on the matter. The CAA on February 7th 2017 invited international companies to bid for the running of the three airports, causing considerable concern in their workforces that were unprepared for this move. There are suspicions that the CAA was strong-armed into the move by external parties. Legal arguments will continue but the impression inevitably is that the CAA is being less than transparent about circumstances surrounding this privatisation. ‘Confidential documents?’ Stop playing games CAA, we are no longer easily fooled.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 11th, 2017.
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