September 23, 2006	Saturday	Sha'aban 29, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, Sept 22: People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) central information secretary Sherry Rehman has criticised the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) for its inability to take appropriate corrective measures that were urgently required after the July 10 crash of a Fokker aircraft near Multan killing 42 people.

In a statement on Friday, the PPP leader expressed her party’s distress at the fact that so many lives were lost but the National Assembly standing committee on defence was still not given the answers it sought, which showed the Musharraf regime’s lack of interest in issues that affected the lives of ordinary Pakistanis.

The standing committee members had asked for the radar overhaul record of last four years and a report on action taken against officials responsible for the criminal neglect in its next meeting to be held shortly.

Instead of taking to task the officials responsible for the tragic negligence, the CAA had recommended their promotion from BPS-19 to BPS-20, Ms Rehman said, adding that it was the worst kind of justice meted out to families of the July 10 crash victims.

Taking note of the existing lapses in CAA’s airline monitoring system, Ms Rehman raised several pertinent questions about the state of affairs of the authority and its performance. Why, for instance, was an unqualified flight standards director appointed by the body to oversee its flight operations, she asked.

Noting the regime’s criminal reluctance to undertake a high- level probe into the incident, Ms Rehman recalled that even in its aftermath when the risks of PIA’s Fokker planes had been revealed in the national media, the regime had refused to ground the Fokker flights or suspend the authorities concerned.