ISLAMABAD: Minister for Aviation Division Ghulam Sarwar Khan on Thursday said that during last five years, degrees of 521 employees of Pakistan International Airlines were found fake, bogus or tempered.
Replying to a question of Ms. Tahira Aurangzeb in the National Assembly, the minister said that out of total, 329 Pakistan International Airlines Corporation Limited (PIACL) employees have been separated from services till date while 192 employees were on court stay or their cases are under process.
In a written reply to a question of Dr Shazia Sobia Aslam Soomro, the minister said that PIA present management had taken measures to improve its performance and reduce the losses including launching of viable new routes like Sialkot-Sharjah, Lahore-Muscat, Islamabad-Doha and Lahore-Bangkok-Kualalampur, Sialkot-Paris Barcelona, Peshawar-Sharjah, Peshawar-Al-Ain and Multan-Sharjah.
These routes are satisfactory and economically viable. He added other steps including increasing frequencies and capacity on profitable routes like Jeddah and Madina especially from Faisalabad, closure of loss making routes like, New York, Salalah (Oman), Kuwait, Mumbai, replacing the 20 years old and highly expensive software system with new HITIT which is very cost effective and huge savings are expected.
He said that an effective austerity and cost saving drive was initiated which included curtailment of unnecessary visits by officials both foreign and domestic.