Ailing national carrier: SC orders PIA to stop recruitment drive

Directs Chairman Asif Yasin Malik to appear before court at next hearing.

ISLAMABAD:

The Supreme Court on Friday directed Pakistan International Airlines’ (PIA) Human Resource department to immediately stop recruiting new employees in the national carrier and directed it to produce a complete record in this regard at the next hearing.

A three-member bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, was hearing petitions filed by PML-N’s senior leader Iqbal Zafar Jaghra and Marvi Memon pertaining to mismanagement, nepotism and corruption in PIA.

The bench asked the airlines’ management to produce a complete recruitment record and directed its Chairman, Lt-Gen (retd) Asif Yasin Malik, to appear before the court at the next hearing. The court also took notice of the frequent delays in PIA flights, and directed it to ensure that such delays do not occur in the future.

During the hearing, the apex court was informed that PIA had sought Rs22 billion in a bailout package to keep the ailing airline afloat. CJ Chaudhry remarked how the federal government could provide funds to PIA when sufficient tax revenue was not being generated.

Memon requested the SC to form a commission for probing mismanagement and corruption in the airline, which was once one of the most esteemed international airlines.

Counsel for PIA, Raja Bashir, told the court that no forensic audit was done in PIA. The court observed that senior officials of PIA, despite being paid handsomely, were not interested in turning the carrier into a profitable organisation.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 15^th, 2012.