ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar on Monday said that the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and Shaheen Air International (SAI) officials have made “a mess of the issue” as the Supreme Court resumed hearing a case regarding the airlines’ payment of dues to the CAA.
Main Saqib Nisar was heading a three-judge bench hearing the case pertaining to a dispute between Shaheen Airlines and the CAA regarding the airline’s pending payment of Rs1.5 billion.
Shaheen Airlines had earlier moved the high court against the CAA directive and the court had ordered that the authority should not suspend the airline’s operations if it made the payments as per an agreed time frame.
Despite the Sindh High Court’s orders, the CAA had partially suspended SAI’s international flight operations in July 2018 due to the non-payment of its dues, which had left passengers stranded in China.
The top judge asked CAA Director General Hassan Baig how much was payable to the aviation body by SAI, to which the CAA DG responded that Shaheen Air has yet to pay Rs1.34 billion.
“Recovering dues is your job,” Justice Nisar remarked, adding: “It seems as though you have colluded to make a mess of things.”
The chief justice wanted to know what assets SAI owned and asked how employees who had not received their salaries were getting by.
He asked for Shaheen Airlines’ CEO to make himself available for the hearing on Tuesday, and further remarked that maybe SAI’s property should be sold to recover the amount.
