Taking a leaf out of the Pakistan People’s Party’s (PPP) book, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government has appointed Captain Humayun Jameel, a matriculate, as deputy managing director of PIA administration and operations.
Appointment of Humayun, a captain of Boeing 777, against a coveted office raised many eyebrows in the PIA administration and aviation industry over the suitability of the person appointed as well as the legality of the appointment which is in violation of PIA’s rules and regulations.
Interestingly, the notification of the appointment has been issued by the aviation secretary, who is not competent to make appointments, let alone making high-profile appointments.
According to PIAC Act, “Power to make appointment rests with the chairman and board of governors exclusively”.
Legally speaking, the aviation secretary cannot make any such appointment. Even the PIA board’s chairman is not at liberty to undertake such appointments.
Per the rules, even an acting chairman, in the absence of a regular chairman cannot issue any such notification.
Violation of rules does not end here in the induction of a PML-N loyalist. According to the laws governing the PIA, for all appointments in group-5 and above, the minimum qualification is graduation.
Sources in the PIA said Captain Humayun was competent to handle the operations but as far as running and managing the administration was concerned he lacked requisite qualification as well as experience.
Experts said the PPP had remained under fire for appointing unsuitable and unqualified people, such as Captain Haroon and Nadeem Yousafzai, against key offices. Because they were not competent, they could not contain the losses or turn PIA into a profitable and viable institution.
They believed that in appointing Humayun, the PML-N government too is showing the same approach, that of pick and choose, thereby compromising on merit.
In Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s previous administration when Shahid Khaqan Abbasi was the chairman of the PIA, Humayun was appointed general manager operations with officiating charge of director administration.