Air Indus to get licence in two months
A division bench headed by Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi passed this direction while disposing of a petition of Air Indus against possible cancellation of its licence after a statement of President Asif Ali Zardari.
Abdul Waheed, Managing Director of Air Indus, filed a petition, submitting President Zardari, in an interview, had declined the opinion about financing of airline by his sister. Also, the president reportedly passed an arbitrary order to the defence ministry to cancel operating licences of airline in disregard of aviation rules and regulations.
He submitted that certain elements in the aviation industry started propagating; saying that the airline was being financed by Faryal Talpur, sister of Zardari, despite the airline operator having no affiliation with any politician.
The counsel stated that after Zardari made a statement to the media, the ministry was informed about the propaganda against the airline, but no reply was received from the ministry. He apprehended that the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) might cancel petitioner’s license under the defence ministry’s direction.
On Thursday, the counsel appearing for the CAA said that procedural hurdles in the licence issuance process were removed and the petitioner’s application was forwarded to the ministry for issuing the licence.
The deputy attorney general filed comments of the defence ministry, stating that the ministry had no plans to cancel the licence of Air Indus.
SHC division bench disposed of petition and directed the Ministry of Defence to complete the process for issuance of the Regular Public Transport status within two months to the airline.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 24th, 2012.
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