February 25, 2007	Sunday	Safar 7, 1428

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ISLAMABAD, Feb 24: The People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) has expressed its concern over the growing series of governance scandals, both fiscal as well as regulatory, hounding the national flag carrier Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) since last year.

In a statement issued here on Saturday, PPP Information Secretary Sherry Rehman said the PIA had been in the news for quite some time for its messy financial affairs and a recent audit of the airline cast serious doubts over the corporation’s ability to continue as a growing concern as its monthly losses were reported to go beyond Rs1 billion, while its liabilities exceeded its assets by Rs20 billion.

Although, she said, the management shoddily denied this recorded fact, last year, the airline faced a ban on some of its key aircraft on European Union (EU) routes for failing to maintain approved standards of airline refurbishment.

"Now again, according to reports from Brussels, the PIA is in for further trouble as the EU is all set to bar all its aircraft, except for Boeing 777s, from flying to 27 European countries after March 8 owing to maintenance concerns," she said, adding that the organisation's "careless attitude" towards maintenance was "appalling." "What right does a national flag carrier have to put people's lives at risk, or to spend without a check when losses are mounting? Who authorises Pakistan’s national colours to be dropped on aircraft tail fins that are painted at astronomical charges? Why are trained loyal pilots, crew and ground staff allowed to be treated like un-unionised sweatshop employees? And why should a ban be slapped, or even threatened, twice in a matter of six months by the EU? All this is the cause of extreme embarrassment both for the PIA and the nation that finances it," she stated.

Ms Rehman said the news of the EU ban led to the conclusion that both the PIA and Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) had indeed been failing miserably in maintaining safety standards.

"Other than the CAA's failings, and lack of action after the Fokker crash over the past couple of years, the PIA too is assuming a pretty notorious reputation in flight delays and cancellations. Passengers, whether travelling on domestic routes or the international ones, are subjected to extreme agony because of the growing inefficiency of the management. PIA's airfares have always matched the most competitive airlines of the world.

Yet neither passengers, nor loyal employees, or the tax-paying nation are passed on the benefits of falling oil prices, or hedges against rises, which many other airlines practiced," she added.