President Palpa, Sohail Baluch, while speaking to The Express Tribune, stated: “I assure you that pilots are not responsible for the delay of flights and they are doing their assigned job.”
Pilots are not resorting to go-slow contrary to the claims of the PIA management, he said. “We need safety and this is what we have asked a number of times,” Baluch added.
He said that the PIA management is neglecting safety of passengers and pilots by making haphazard rosters (the duty schedule for pilots detailing when and where they are to fly next).
By neglecting pilots’ safety concerns, they are indirectly putting the passengers at risk as a disgruntled pilot may make mistakes while flying a plane, he explained.
The members of Palpa also observed that the PIA has always faced a shortage of pilots, but such mismanagement of rosters has never occurred before.
PIA spokesperson held the pilots responsible for the delay of flights, saying many of the pilots had refused to fly the plane at the eleventh hour causing huge problems to both the management and the passengers.
He said that the pilots would never accept their own fault and never admit that they have refused to fly planes. Furthermore, he added, the pilots just have an association to represent them and not a union to make demands, which they are perpetually doing.
He accused the pilots of deliberately delaying four national and international flights by three to five hours when the PIA management did not bow to their demands. “Pilots are one of the highest paid employees of the PIA, and they still expect the management to cater only to their demands, while neglecting other sections,” he said.
Palpa, in a press release issued on Monday, denied observing any go-slow, saying that the flight to Dhaka on July 24 had not been delayed because of deliberate slow work by pilots.
It said that the management asks the pilots to go on flights without any prior notice which is a violation of the Palpa-PIAC working agreement and CAA Flight Safety Rules.
Palpa demanded the implementation of the ‘working agreement’ which not only addresses all issues but provides an ample ground for resolution of disputes. “If the management is interested in running the affairs of the national flag carrier, then they will have to abide by the working agreement on which both parties were agreed,” the association said.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 27th, 2010.
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