Civil Aviation Authority officers threaten to move court against promotion policy

The board of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) on Tuesday approved a revised recruitment and promotion criterion, sparking fears among its officers who said they would now take their grievances to court, said officials.

However, the decision needs to be approved by the Establishment Division before it is implemented.

A board meeting was called on Tuesday to approve a new recruitment and promotion policy for the CAA, which was opposed by the Civil Aviation Officers Association of Pakistan (COAP).

The board also approved some of the issues that had the support of COAP, such as appointing two new directors - director land and director audit - from the organisation itself and not from outside. It also approved reduction in the number of general managers to 56 compared to more than 90 at present.

The COAP believed that this new policy is geared towards promotion of a few specific officials of the CAA and will ignore experienced senior employees.

“We will move court if this policy is implemented,” said the COAP President, Ghulam Mustafa Mirani after Tuesday’s board meeting. “We disapprove of this policy for the CAA officers,” he added.

The officers union has also written a letter to the chairman and board members of CAA, saying that the director general was trying to mislead board members on the new promotion policy.

“Unrest is being created by some temporary contract officers in the senior management who are going to retire soon. And that the decisions were taken against the wishes of most of the officers,” the letter said.

CAA spokesperson Pervaiz George said that he was not aware of any development in Tuesday’s board meeting.

The COAP president said that a few junior officers would be promoted to senior positions with the help of a self-made formula.

Earlier, the COAP also criticised the extraordinary board meeting held on Tuesday, which, it said, is only held in case of emergency and matters of most urgent nature.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 23^rd, 2010.