Benevolently yours: CAA plays favourites with Shaheen Air

Preferential treatment towards the private airline causes the public exchequer a loss of millions.

ISLAMABAD:

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is extending unjustifiable favours to Shaheen Air International (SAI) by violating its own rules, regulations and security code, a source has revealed to The Express Tribune.

Preferential treatment towards the private airline is causing the public exchequer a loss of millions every day, money which should have been deposited by the SAI. The airline is exempt from paying millions of rupees in parking fees to the CAA as it has been allowed to park its planes at the parking sites of the Pakistan Air Force in all major airports including Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore and Peshawar .

While Abid Kaimkhani, the CAA public relations manager, has denied that the authority was extending any undue favours, PAF spokesman Air Commodore Tariq made contradictory statements when approached by The Express Tribune.

Initially, the spokesman rejected the report and said, “Being a private company, SAI is not at all entitled to avail parking facilities at the PAF tarmacs.”



Tariq was of the view that security measures do not permit PAF to allow private aircraft and their staff to enter prohibited areas of the air force.

However, later when shown substantial evidence of the unauthorised parking of a SAI aircraft on PAF tarmac, he changed his statement, saying that SAI is in fact allowed to avail PAF tarmacs.

The spokesman said that the PAF allowed SAI aircraft to avail its parking as there was no place available on the CAA aircraft parking site.

As a matter of policy, he said that the PAF allows private airlines of Pakistan to avail its tarmacs for parking in such situations. The spokesman was not aware whether such services to SAI and other private airlines were free of charge. “I have no knowledge whether SAI had paid parking fees to the PAF or it is just free of charge,” he explained.

He also rejected claims that PAF officers benefit from free SAI tickets.

The chairman and vice-chairman of the SAI were not available for comment on the report despite repeated attempts by The Express Tribune.

With its head office in Karachi, SAI is fast emerging as the country’s leading airline. It will very soon beat PIA in number of aircraft.



The CAA has been generous towards the SAI since its inception in 1991, when it was established as a subsidiary of the Shaheen Foundation of the PAF as the second national carrier to airlift passengers and cargo on both domestic and international destinations.

Soon after its creation, the Shaheen Foundation could not manage the affairs of the airline, which caused big financial losses to the national exchequer.

The airline was then sold to Khalid Sehbai, a former PAF officer, at a throwaway price with a payment mode allowing easy instalments. The then PAF chief of air staff also wrote off about Rs653 million owed by the airline the PAF.CAA also wrote off a large amount the airline owed after it was bought by the Sehbai group due to the direct involvement of the director general of CAA.

The new owner of SAI, Khalid Mehmood Sehbai, became its first chairman; then director of CAA Safdar Malik (at the time of the purchase of SAI) was appointed as the vice-chairman of SAI.

In May 2004, the CAA stopped all domestic and international flights of SAI as it failed to pay outstanding dues worth millions of rupees.

The matter was resolved after the intervention of the PAF and higher-ups in the CAA after three days. The airline was then allowed to resume its domestic and international operations after a partial payment was made. A big amount was also written off by CAA authorities, the source said.

The favours SAI enjoys at the cost of the public exchequer give it an unfair advantage over other private airlines. Highly priced land belonging to the PAF has also been given to SAI for the establishment of its offices in various cities, including Karachi and Peshawar.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 4^th, 2013.