PIA sacks 29 more employees

National carrier has sacked 206 workers in last four months

ISLAMABAD:

As part of its in-house accountability process, the PIA has sacked 29 more employees on different charges including having fake educational credentials, dereliction of duty, smuggling and theft of official record.

The number of workers of the national carrier fired in the last four months has reached 206 with the fresh layoffs as the airline is moving ahead with its reforms.

According the PIA human resource department, the airline had initiated action against 54 employees and carried out an in-depth investigation. During the process, 29 of them were found guilty of indulging in illegal practices and sacked while 25 handed down different punishments.

Seven employees were fired for possessing fake degrees, eight for remaining absent from duty without notice and two for damaging property owned by the national flag carrier.

Similarly, six employees were sacked over charges of corruption, two for their involvement in smuggling narcotics and one for leaking classified information.

In addition, two employees were sacked for stealing official data and five for not following the standard operating procedures.

A PIA spokesperson said nine employees were demoted for not following instructions and 10 were cleared after an inquiry.

He added that 13 PIA employees were awarded certificates for their outstanding performance and seven given cash prizes.

The spokesperson said 41 employees were sacked in June, 62 in July and 74 in August.

The national carrier had sacked 17 pilots in July for having 'dubious' flying licences on the order of the federal cabinet. They included 12 captains and five first officers. Last month, the federal cabinet approved the revocation of the licences of 22 more pilots. In addition, the cabinet was informed that the Civil Aviation Authority was considering suspending the licences of 32 other pilots for the next 12 months.

The sacking followed startling revelations by Aviation Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan.

In June, Ghulam Sarwar Khan had told parliament that 262 pilots of the total 860 in the country had "suspicious flying licences" and would be grounded immediately. Later, PIA announced that it would ground a third of its 434 pilots.

Sarwar said criminal proceedings would also be initiated against pilots with the alleged fake licences as the government could not allow anyone to put the lives of its citizens at risk. However, the Pakistan Airline Pilots' Association rejected the government's list of pilots with licences deemed dubious, saying that it was full of discrepancies.