We have a vivacious civil aviation industry in our neck of the woods and it’s about time that we capitalise on it. The task ahead might seem daunting, but rest assured that it does not penetrate into the realms of impossibility. There are scores of fronts where we can enhance the industry; and if taken care of meticulously there is no reason why the efforts would not bear the desired fruits.
The government should take up the mantle of being the trailblazer, and lead the way. First up, a professional high level national committee on civil aviation should be formulated, consisting of representatives from the airline industry, the government, the regulatory body, support industries and of course the military. This should be done along the lines of the Edwards Committee formed in the 70s in United Kingdom. And it goes without saying that a connoisseur apropos aviation should be at the helm of the committee.
It should be made mandatory for the aforementioned committee to study the National Aviation Policy and that of other developing countries to ensure that the body is able to sermon a thorough and progressive policy that can be implemented after being rubberstamped by the Cabinet. The committee should also be given a strong support cast to cover all the bases. The national interests should be at the top of the pile of any priority list, and vested interests and intra-regional biases should be shunned. The policy that would be synthesized, once all the aforementioned points are taken care of, would be futuristic, progressive and in tune with the modern technologies.
The government, after taking all stakeholders into confidence should also revamp the CAA so that its functions of economic regulation, safety regulation and airport infrastructure development would be further bolstered. One feels that there is a need of independent organisations to concentrate their individual focus on managing safety regulation, economic regulation and airport infrastructure development. The government should ascertain the writ of the revamped CAA; and also that violators should be dealt with strongly.
PIA should be asked to run on professional and commercial lines in synchrony with the PIAC Act 1955, and should become an active part of a competitive market; and this of course can be done – on PIA’s part – by the usage of latest information technology and other means of enhancing efficiency. It’s about time the government stops bailing-out PIA. Lastly, accountability should also be channelised and institutionalised, and pointless mechanisms should be purged out. Corruption – possibly the biggest hindrance towards progress in any façade in Pakistan – should be curtailed by a strict no-nonsense approach.
The writer is Sub-Editor, Profit. He can be reached at khulduneshahid@gmail.com