Reinvestigation report: PHC issues notices to DG CAA, PIA over Airblue crash
The Peshawar High Court (PHC) has issued notices to the director general of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and the chairman of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) regarding the non-partisan status of the Pakistan Safety Investigation Board (SIB).
The SIB, a body which falls under the CAA, is responsible for investigating aviation incidents in Pakistan.
The notices were issued after experts of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) submitted the reinvestigation report of the Airblue crash.
The report highlighted that since SIB was not an independent body, it could not conduct a transparent investigations into air crashes.
The CAA submitted the reinvestigation report carried out by the ICAO experts at the PHC on Wednesday.
A PHC division bench headed by Chief Justice (CJ) Dost Muhammad Khan and Justice Irshad Qaisar heard a writ petition filed by Marvi Memon of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) against the Airblue administration. The bench observed that the SIB should not be under bureaucratic or governmental control and that it should be independent.
During the case hearing, the CAA’s senior legal advisor, Obaidur Rehman Abbasi, said that the Ministry of Defence is discussing converting SIB into an independent entity and this will be done after proper legislation.
Constitutional jurisdiction challenged
The counsel for Airblue, Abdul Latif Yousafzai, submitted an application to the PHC challenging the court’s jurisdictions for hearing the case under Article 186(a) of the constitution.
He said two petitions of the same case could not be heard at two different high courts. Legal heirs of the crash victims had also filed a civil suit against Airblue at the Islamabad High Court (IHC) and about 122 legal heirs have been given Rs5 million in monetary compensation, he added. The rest will be given the money soon.
Yousafzai told the bench that either the case registered at the PHC by Memon be transferred to the IHC or the civil suit registered be transferred to the PHC.
Commenting on the submitted report, CJ Khan said that the foreign experts categorically stated that vital information mentioned in the draft report was missing from the final report uploaded to the CAA website.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 15th, 2012.
Correction: An earlier version of the article incorrectly mentioned "FIA" instead of "PIA" in the headline. The error has been rectified.
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Airblue crash and cover up of the causes of this tragic accident by the powerful political connections is an example of what such people who own business as well as political positions can do. Shahid Khatwan Abbasi is one such example and I'm still hopeful that Peshawer High Court Chief Justice with his sense of right and wrong won't let them get away with this negligence that caused deaths of so many for no rhyme or reason.