Hundreds of members of the Joint Action Committee of the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) Employees protested outside the airline’s head office against the management’s decisions that have “pushed the national flag carrier to the verge of collapse”.
The committee is an association of PIA employees with representation from the Pakistan Airline Pilots Association, Society of Aircraft Engineers of Pakistan, Aircraft Technologists Association of Pakistan, Flight Engineers National Association, Peoples Unity, United, PIASE Union and Air League
Committee member and Pakistan Airline Pilots Association President Captain Suhail Baluch demanded that the government and senior judiciary should to take stern notice of the prevailing corruption, incompetence and poor administration at the national airline as these factors have been pushing the PIA to subversion under the nose of higher authorities.
He said that the PIA is unable to bear further mismanagement at the hands of a few corrupt and politically motivated people in the management. “The PIA management has entirely failed in implementing the plan of the board of directors for rescuing the state-owned airline from deep financial losses, owing to which the airline has been incurring huge losses, however, the responsible officials have not been held accountable for their professional failure,” he added.
Baluch also said that the management has turned a deaf ear to the corporation’s board and their demand for appointing a fuel-hedging consultant to curtail the expenses of the airline; and as a result of non-compliance, the PIA has lost billions of rupees.
He also rued the fact that a human resource consultant has not been appointed yet despite the direction of the board, causing losses to the airline since human resource has been a major issue of the airline.
Disapproving of the recent induction of staff without any planning, Baluch said that staff utilisation and training were not done on professional grounds.
He said that the current mismanagement is not only limited to the new staff but it has also marred the existing workforce by out-of-turn promotions and bizarre foreign postings.
Baluch also pointed out the incumbent attitude of PIA management which has deliberately aborted a plan to set up proper strategic business units in the departments to control the leakages and pilferages within the airline.
The national flag carrier’s going down… save it!
