The Sindh High Court on Wednesday suspended the operation of Civil Aviation Authority’s (CAA) letter that directed a private airline Air Indus to halt its operation.
A division bench headed by Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi gave this injunction while hearing an application filed by Air Indus through which it sought stay order against suspension of its air operation.
The bench issued notice to the federal authorities concerned and CAA to file comments in this regard until July 6. The court directed the CAA to ensure presence of its responsible officer to explain the action taken against a private airline. The counsel for the airline filed an application in its main petition through which it has challenged provision of National Aviation Policy 2015.
The counsel submitted that despite pendency of main petition whereby the airline has impugned certain provision of National Aviation Policy 2015 for being discriminatory, the CAA issued a letter on June 30 directing the airline to halt its operation because of its consistent violation of safety regulations.
He told the judges that no opportunity of fair hearing was provided to the airline in compliance with the Civil Aviation Rules 1994. An arbitrary order which is extremely detrimental to the business of the airline was issued. He submitted that the letter was based on malice as he had been penalized for challenging the National Aviation Policy 2015. Therefore, he pleaded the court to suspend the operation of CAA’s letter till pendency of the main petition.