SC hearing: As VIPs suffer midair mishaps, PIA comes under scrutiny

Management concedes only 3% employees were hired on merit.

ISLAMABAD:

A shocking 3% of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA)’s 20,000 employees were hired on merit, according to the national flag-carrier’s top management.

PIA officials on Tuesday informed Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, who is heading a three-judge bench of the apex court hearing the case, that they have not yet determined the level of overstaffing in their organisation. They admitted, however, that 97% of PIA staff was hired under government policy and the quota system.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leaders Iqbal Zafar Jhagra and Marvi Memon also filed a petition signed by several people on an inordinately delayed PIA flight. The petition sought a probe into PIA to identify corruption, mismanagement, inefficiencies and lack of competent staff.

Memon said that she filed the petition because passengers’ rights guaranteed under articles 9, 14, 15, 18 and 25 of the Constitution were violated. She also drew the bench’s attention to the “unique” nature of the petition, saying it was passed around and signed midair by her, Jhagra, and other people on the same flight. The PML-N leader also pointed out the chief justice himself was witness to PIA’s inefficiencies (he was recently on a PIA plane where the engine caught fire), at which point he said, “Don’t make me a witness in this case.”

Marvi added that massive mismanagement, corruption and nepotism had destroyed PIA. The chief justice remarked that while PIA once had 46-strong fleet, it now has only 26 aircraft.



The Supreme Court pinned the blame for the airline’s huge losses on the management. “You are not giving us satisfactory answers and we will fix responsibility against all of you for this decline and will hear this case from December 14,” the chief justice declared.

The court also expressed concern over the absence of PIA’s managing director. However, PIA’s HR director briefed the court about the financial status of the airline. He said according to the financial statement, the loans PIA has taken are worth $1 billion, while $565 million is due for the lease of planes.

When the director avoided giving a straight answer as to how many appointments were made on the basis of nepotism, he avoided giving a direct answer – but when Justice Azmat told him to avoid “ifs and buts” and to “only be afraid of Allah”, a PIA engineering department official finally stepped in and said that 3% were appointed on merit, while most other employees were hired on urban and rural quotas.

The chief justice rectified this definition, saying that actually, in all the departments, including catering, repair, engineering and maintenance and international flight airhostesses, crew, pilots and co-pilots were employed on recommendations from influential people.

The PIA official also said that the ratio of staff working on or in connection with one plane was 450, while the common ratio is around 150 to 200 employees. The engineer added that out of a total of 38 planes, 9 have faced an unscheduled grounding for now.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 5^th, 2012.