The Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) to make 205 new ‘skillful’ appointments while postponing the recruitment of 45 others.
A two-judge SC bench comprising Justice Ijazul Ahsan and Justice Ayesha A Malik heard the case filed by the PIA, seeking permission for the recruitment of 250 pilots, cabin crew, IT specialists, finance and management officials.
On March 31, 2018, the SC placed a ban on new recruitment in the airline.
In February this year, the PIA had approached the top court for the early hearing of its plea, seeking permission to induct 250 employees.
The national carrier, in its fresh application, stated that there were a number of key positions currently lying vacant which were required to be filled in order to ensure the smooth operations of the airline.
“Without the induction of the said new employees, the airline will not be able to meet its operational requirements and could once again run into financial difficulties as a result of not being able to operate at full capacity,” the application added.
The report revealed that as the SC had restricted the national carrier from recruiting any manpower since 2018, the airline was unable to induct fresh blood, resulting in an increase in the average age of its existing employees to 45.2 years.
“This has created [a] deficiency of operational crew and new employees having the latest technological-cum-corporate knowledge with contemporary skillset required to uplift the national flag carrier to an era of advancement and innovative strategic commercial operations,” it stated.
The report also mentioned that the PIA had recently made an arrangement of code-sharing with the Turkish Airlines.
It continued that an increase in the frequency of flights would be a key requirement for running operations smoothly.
“As an outcome of the code-share arrangement with [the] Turkish Airlines, the PIA is projecting an annual revenue of Rs205 billion for the year 2023,” the report added.
On Wednesday, the apex court allowed the PIA to recruit pilots, cabin crew and IT specialists.
During the proceedings, the court also directed the PIA administration to ensure a clear and transparent recruitment process.
Justice Ayesha inquired, "Why was the PIA unable to pay its dues, and why did it have to recruit more people?"
Justice Ahsan observed that the quality of services provided by PIA was not up to the mark. He added that the new recruitments would impose an additional burden of more than Rs90 million annually on the airline.
PIA CEO Air Vice Marshal Muhammad Amir Hayat told the court that the national airline’s profit for the last six months was Rs3 billion and flights were operating on profitable routes.
He added that the PIA was starting flight operations on international and domestic routes.
Justice Ahsan noted that the flight staff of other airlines was less and asked if the recruitment would be on a permanent or a contractual basis.
The CEO replied that the recruitment would be on a one-year renewable contractual basis.
The apex court allowed the recruitment of 205 employees after hearing the arguments of the CEO and additional attorney general.
1710998259-0/pti-(1)1710998259-0-270x192.webp "pti goes against imran s decision")
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