Pakistan International Airlines was able to resume its normal operations on Wednesday, almost five days after a tense standoff with the Pakistan Airline Pilots Association (PALPA), after the pilots’ union announced that it was calling off its protest until Friday following the Senate’s standing committee’s assurance that their just demands would be considered by the government.
“We have decided to honour the words of the Senate’s standing committee and its Chairman Senator Talha Mahmood and called off our protest till Friday. Now the secretary aviation would hold talks with us and report back to the committee,” PALPA President Amir Hashmi told Pakistan Today.
He said Senator Talha had admitted that their demands were just and right, and then he requested them to give the PIA and Aviation Division some time to resolve the issue.
“We have already been doing our best not to disturb Hajj operation and we refused to operate only those flights which did not have double crew as required by the aviation rules and regulation prevailing under PIA-PALPA working agreement. This time again we accepted the request of the standing committee and decided to give more time to the aviation division to find solution of this issue,” added Amir.
Amir said they were hopeful that the secretary aviation would come up with some solution and their demands would be met. “Our demands are just and fair. We are demanding fair treatment from the management while staying in the legal parameters,” added Amir.
He said that the spokesman of the Aviation Division and the PIA chairman claimed that PALPA demands money and seniority of pilots as per their wishes but the fact was that they demanded rule of law.
“The PIA chairman and the aviation spokesman also told the media that PALPA wants removal of director flight operations, approval of working agreement, and seniority of pilots as per their wishes,” added Amir.
He added that their demand of approval of working agreement was just because this was the legal document both the parties had agreed on in the past for better working relations and protecting interests of both the pilots and the national airline.
Similarly, he added, the management should streamline its promotion policy on seniority basis. “This is another injustice being done to the pilots’ community. We suggest that the management should appoint a judge of the Supreme Court to prepare the promotion policy as per law,” added Amir.
“We were also accused of demanding the removal of DFO. We demand that all the employees of the airline holding positions while on LPR should be removed. This is not an illegal demand because as per laws and regulations of the airline no employee on LPR can hold any position for more than three months,” he added.
PIA OPERATIONS RESUME:
Meanwhile, a PIA spokesman said that 120 flights were scheduled for Wednesday and none of these, both on domestic and international routes, had been canceled as the management was in absolute control of the situation.
“We have made standby arrangements to address any emerging predicament,” said the official.
In reply to a question, he said the PIA chairman in his press conference in Islamabad Tuesday evening had referred to approach naval aviation. Presently two PIA aircraft with needed crew were on standby status in Karachi and Islamabad airports, respectively, said the official.
Claiming that the issue was blown out of proportion, he said during the five days period 587 flights were mounted for the schedule and the national carrier operated 490 flights. None of their trans-atlantic schedule or flight for western destinations were affected, he said in reply to a question.
“The present stand-by arrangement is basically to ensure 100 percent operation while despite unprofessional approach of few we managed to comply with more than 99 percent schedule,” said the official.
Reiterating that no major problems exist, the official said that the PIA management was open to address genuine grievances, however, it could not be blackmailed.