Bhoja Air crash: One year on, hopes for justice fade

Grieving family members blame the government for not conducting proper inquiries.

ISLAMABAD:

April 20, 2012, is a day forever seared into Sardar Kainaaf Hussain’s mind.

With one development, his life was left tattered forever – he lost his son, his mother and his aunt in the second worst air disaster in the country’s history.

An entire year later, he has no answers. No closure.

“The families of the Bhoja Air crash victims have lost all hope,” says Hussain, as tears cascade down his face. “Here [in Pakistan], there is no justice if you are not well off. What makes the pain worse is that Bhoja Air and the bureaucracy have managed to hoodwink all the institutions that were supposed to provide us with at least some semblance of justice.”

Hussain is not the only one still grieving. Families of 127 passengers, all of whom lost their lives, share the same anguish.

In fact, echoes of the tragedy resonate with the entire nation, even now. It’s difficult to forget the crash landing, that thunderstorm, just like it’s difficult to forget the 2010 Airblue Flight 202, those fog-shrouded Margalla Hills, and the 152 aboard.

Widow Nisar Fatima lost her only daughter, Zaibunnisa, 26, last year. She lives all alone now. “Why did the Civil Aviation Authority let the airline operate, despite the default and the poor performance?” she asks, her voice low. “It’s been a year, and the government still hasn’t wiped off our tears. Why could a report not be prepared?”

Today, mystery still shrouds the case – just how the Bhoja Air got its licence, and where the company owners are right now, no one knows.  Akhlaq Khan, too, wants answers. He lost his brother, Ishfaq, in the crash, and believes that government has mishandled the aftermath.

“Something like this is more painful than people realise,” says Akhlaq. “It’s difficult to look after my brother’s widow and two daughters. Imagine what they are going through.”

According to Akhlaq, only 25 of the families have received monetary compensation. The three-member commission, constituted by then premier Yusuf Raza Gilani, to probe the crash, has done “nothing”, he says. Akhlaq is not far off from the truth. Not a single meeting has been convened by the committee, headed by former Justice (retd) Zahid Hussain.

No member of the commission was available to respond to queries posed by The Express Tribune.

“I cannot comment on the performance of the commission for the time being,” said the prime minister’s press secretary Shafqat Jalil.

Unsurprisingly, CAA spokesperson Abid Qaimkhawani, too, is tight-lipped.  He says investigations are still under way and that the final report will be submitted to the defence ministry.

The families of the victims, through their counsel, Omar Adam, filed a petition with Islamabad High Court last September, demanding the constitution of an independent commission to probe the air disaster. The petition will be taken up in June this year.

And yet, it is to be seen just how justice will be served when nobody knows the whereabouts of the Bhoja company owners, including the company’s own administration. Arshad Jalil, the majority stakeholder of Bhoja Air, has fled the country and is, seemingly, overseeing the settlement process from abroad.

Aggrieved Akhlaq cannot help but feel disappointed. He is in fact enraged.

“The government should constitute an independent board of inquiry,” he says. “Those responsible for the colossal back-to-back air crashes, which killed over 280 innocent people and left the whole world stunned, must be identified. Justice must prevail.”

Published in The Express Tribune, April 20^th, 2013.