Requirement of war experience for PIA pilots questioned

PPP’s Khursheed Shah also raises issue of air marshal heading state carrier

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan People’s Party lawmaker Syed Khursheed Shah questioned the Aviation Minister Muhammad Mian Soomro’s request for candidates applying for the position of pilots in Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) to have war experience.

During the National Assembly session on Wednesday, Shah said the state carrier is already facing a crisis while questioning the logic behind requiring war experience for those flying commercial flights.

Fellow PPP lawmaker Abdul Qadir Patel also joined Shah in questioning the appointment of an air marshal as the chairman of PIA, inquiring whether the state carrier had to fight a war.

The aviation minister responded that the decision was taken owing to technical expertise of the air marshal, and that the situation is being monitored.

Soomro also reminded the PPP lawmakers that their own party’s Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had appointed Air Marshall Nur Khan as the chairman of PIA in 1973.

The current chairman, Air Marshal Arshad Mahmood Malik, was appointed to the top post of cash-strapped PIA in October last year, following a ruling of the top court that declared the appointment of his predecessor null and void. At that time, the government had said that the new chairman had been directed to fix the state carrier’s financial and economic woes.

During the session, the aviation minister briefed the lower house about the state carrier’s activities and that it was in the process of finalising its Strategic Business Plan, which will be submitted by April.

Sharing the steps taken by the government to improve the performance, Soomro said several profitable new routes like Sialkot-Sharjah, Lahore-Muscat, Islamabad-Doha and Lahore-Bangkok-Kuala Lumpur have been added.

He added that more new routes, including Sialkot-Paris-Barcelona, Peshawar-Sharjah, Peshawar-Al-Ain, Multan-Sharjah and Jeddah and Madinah will commence by next month.

He also informed the house that a 20-year old and highly expensive software system had been replaced with a new one which was very cost effective, economical and more efficient. The government had sacked about 200 ghost employees, while 90 percent flight punctuality had been achieved.

"Delays of flights have been cut down significantly by better planning in engineering, flight operation and ground handling departments," he informed the house.

To another query during the question hour, he said currently PIA leased fleet included 20 aircraft acquired on dry lease basis.

Speaking about the issue of degrees of PIA employees, the minister said that as a result of verification, 700 degrees of employees were found fake. Of those, 402 employees were terminated, and 35 cases were under process for disciplinary proceedings, whereas 263 employees approached the court of law and sought stay orders, he added.

The federal government also presented a 12-year report regarding PIA aircraft. It stated that the number of PIA aircraft have decreased in the past 12 years.

The number of airplanes in 2008 was 43, which went down to 42 in 2014. By 2016, it had declined to 36, while in 2018, the number of aircraft stand at 32.

 

Climate Change

Minister of State for Climate Change Zartaj Gul Wazir informed the National Assembly that a total of 2.48 million saplings were planted during "Plant for Pakistan Day" drive spearheaded by her ministry.

Responding to a question during Question Hour, she credited the federal government for the inter-provincial coordination to organise the campaign.

“The saplings distributed during the campaign were planted and were being maintained by the public and institutions that participated in the campaign from their own resources,” she said.

She also enumerated the various steps and projects undertaken by her ministry to combat the threats of climate change. Under the "Green Pakistan Program-Revival of Forest Resources in Pakistan", the ministry had planned to plant 100 million trees in five years (2017-21) at a total cost of Rs3.652 billion, she added.

Talking about the "Clean Green Pakistan Movement", she said it had been launched by the prime minister and her ministry was co-ordinating for its implementation with all the provinces including AJK and GB.

Tree plantation, solid and liquid waste management, toilets facility and safe drinking water are key components of this drive.