The director general of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) on Thursday told a Senate panel that all pilots of the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) wanted to leave the national carrier. Explaining the reason for this to the Senate Standing Committee on Aviation, CAA DG Khaqan Murtaza said around 35% tax was deducted from the salaries of the pilots.
He added that in addition to that, there was a tax imposed on flying hours of pilots too. “Most of the times you hear about flight cancellations, the reason for this is the dearth of pilots,” he continued. The meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Aviation was held at the Parliament House, presided over by its chairman, Senator Hidayatullah.
Senator Mohsin Aziz, a member of the panel, inquired whether PIA would ever turn profitable in their lifetimes.
PIA CEO Air Vice Marshal Muhammad Amir Hayat replied that the national carrier was making operational profit. Senator Aziz told him to inform the panel about the overall profit of the airline, and not just that of its operational. “Where does the loss of billions of rupees come from every year?” the senator questioned.
The PIA CEO then switched to the subject of pilots’ licences. He said there were 141 pilots with questionable licences. He added that 69 of them had been cleared.
The committee also discussed the matter of cancellation of License of PIA Pilots. The committee was briefed that 141 pilot licenses were declared as suspected by the PCAA, the breakup thereof along with status is 18 pilots were not PIA employees, 18 pilots were terminated from service upon suspension/cancellation of license by PCAA, 16 were deceased and separated, 2 Pilots are on stay order whose decision is pending due to the same and remaining 87 were cleared by PCAA afterwards. DG Civil Aviation apprised that the alleged pilot was involved in irregularities and obtained the APTL licenses by unfair means. The chairman committee directed to constitute a subcommittee to probe the matter in detail.
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