A leg-breaking affair: Khi airport has only 72 chairs

Jinnah International Airport Karachi (JIAK), the country’s largest aviation facility built in 1992 at a mammoth cost of $100 million, has insufficient seating arrangements for thousands of passengers and their attendants who visit the busy airport daily. Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) spokesman Abid Qaimkhani, however, points a finger at the visitors who deem the strategic airport as a recreational point, and during their hours-long stay damage the national assets including chairs. Nothing but luck can save you from keeping stood up for hours at the JIAK if you are a passenger, or someone accompanying him or her, and are stuck with the most probable likelihood of getting your flight delayed. Reason being there are only 72 chairs, 36 on each floor of the two-storey building of the international standard airport which remains flooded round-the-clock, by thousands of visitors that include women, children and people with different physical disabilities. On Sunday last, this reporter saw many people wandering here and there at JIAK in search of a place where they could stretch back after the announcement was made that Air Blue’s flight number PA-201 would be landing belatedly at 1:15pm instead of the scheduled 12noon. But a few were lucky enough to grab one of the only 18 seats the port authorities have placed for innumerable visitors on each corner of the double-storey JIAK building. Resultantly, while some exhausted souls started hanging on the steel-made barriers erected all around to make partitions, the majority helplessly stood up keeping, however, a hawk eye on the occupiers of available seats in a hope for their being unseated. Then there were some sitting on the ground! Ali Akbar, 62, was one such old man whose artificial leg did not allow him to keep standing for too long and sit on the ground. “There is no chair out there so I sat here,” said the passenger who having arrived from Lahore was waiting for conveyance along with his luggage. “I can neither walk nor properly stand because of my leg that is artificial,” said Ali, a former dock worker from University Road. “The administration should place more chairs here. It puts the country’s prestige to question. Even Lahore Railway Station has better seating arrangement than this airport,” said the old man. Nearby ground sitters were Rafique Ahmed and Farooq Ahmed, two brothers who arrived from Larkana to see the latter off to Saudi Arabia. “His flight is slated for tomorrow at 8pm. But we came here today (10am Sunday) to avoid any mishap because of JSQM’s strike in the province,” Rafique, a mechanic by profession, said referring to Farooq who could not speak Urdu. The two Sindhi-speaking brothers had finally seated on ground after finding no place on, what Rafique agreed, the insufficient number of chairs at the airport. “I have no choice but to sit here for the flight’s delay,” said the 53-year-old bearded man hailing from Hangu district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, adding that many like him wouldn’t be able to stand but were compelled to hang like this. “There are very few chairs for too many people,” said Gul. What make it worst for the values-oriented locals at the airport are the cultural constraints. As at times, this reporter saw a couple of seats vacant and many interested men hovering around but not daring to keep sitting simply because they had to sit beside a female. In the sub-continent, especially in the predominantly conservative society like Pakistan, the males don’t like other males to sit near their female relatives. Ironically, while the general public lack basic facilities even, the VIPs have special “CIP Lounges” at the same airport to enjoy. According to its official website, JIAK offers 22 facilities to the intended users of CIP Lounge, that include first-class passengers and business-class passengers, and those holding credit cards of Askari, Standard Chartered, Union and Habib Bank Limited. “We offer more than 22 items: TV for entertainment, newspaper and magazine, telephone, fax and free internet,” reads the website of JIAK which charges $6 and Rs 200 per head, respectively, from the foreign and domestic CIP Lound users of outbound flights. Corporate greats like Barclays, UBL and Airblue also have set up their separate dedicated lounges at the airport’s international terminal. When contacted, Abid Qaimkhani, confirmed that the seating arrangement was not satisfactory for “thousands” of port visitors. “We have a strange culture whereby people sit uselessly at the airport for entertainment purpose,” he said. The spokesman claimed that such entertainers had broken down at least 200 chairs. “People take the airport as a recreational point and damage its facilities at will,” he said. Urging the media to educate the masses on the importance of national assets, the spokesman said order has been placed by the CAA for at least 500 new chairs for the airport. “I don’t know why it took that much time in being delivered,” he wondered. The available seats, Abid said, were only for the elderly persons’ use. “But they rarely find space on the chairs,” he lamented.