March, 24 2005	Thursday	13 Safar 1426

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ISLAMABAD, March 23: A number of passengers have accused the PIA cargo handling staff of stealing their valuable items during transportation of luggage from the aircraft to the conveyor belt at the Islamabad Airport, sources told Dawn on Wednesday. When contacted, a PIA official in the baggage department requesting anonymity, confirmed that two to three theft cases occurred every month and a number of passengers had claimed compensation.

The sources said a number of thefts had been reported to the security and baggage departments and in most cases PIA passengers were the casualty.

They said if ever such an incident happened to the passengers of some foreign airline, they got compensation for their stolen items. On the other hand, the national carrier officials paid a deaf ear to the complaints of the victims, asserting that the lost items were unclaimable. In most cases, they said, the cargo handling staff picked up unclaimable items.

The sources said most of the thefts occurred during transportation of luggage from the plane to the conveyor belt during night and wee hours. The cargo handling staff unlock or unzip the baggages and steal valuable items.

A passenger, Mr Khalid who boarded PK-792 coming from Birmingham, told Dawn that he had lost his valuables worth Rs60,000. “I brought the incident to the notice of the officials of the baggage department but they told me that my items were unclaimable,” he said.

Mr Khalid said he had lodged a complaint (No-785) with the security and baggage departments and the officials told him that they were trying to retrieve his goods though stolen items were seldom recovered.

He said three passengers, including a woman, had lodged a complaint with these departments stating that some valuable items had been stolen from their baggage.

Bismillah Khan complained to the manager cargo and director admin, PIA, that he had booked three bundles of carpets for Quetta valuing Rs950,000, (receipt number 0297-4479). “Hardly had I reached home when I received a call from the PIA cargo department. When I reached there, the manager cargo told me that there was only one bundle, while two were missing,” he said.

When he inquired about the missing of the two other bundles, the manager told him not to report the case to the police, as it would bring a bad name to the airline. He assured him that the department would retrieve the missing bundles as soon as possible.