PESHAWAR, Aug 2: The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) on Thursday submitted a report to the Peshawar High Court highlighting several steps it had so far taken to comply with the court orders, including special safety audit of all aircraft of PIA and private airlines.

In the report submitted to a bench comprising Chief Justice Dost Mohammad Khan and Justice Roohul Amin, the CAA requested the court to dispose of a writ petition filed by ex-MNA Marvi Memon regarding the Airblue plane crash of 2010 or in alternative, delete the CAA and the defence ministry from the list of respondents.

Senior legal advisor of the CAA Obaidur Rehman Abbasi and its lawyer Abdul Shakoor Paracha produced the report.

The bench later adjourned hearing into the case to Sept 11.

The report said shakedown inspection of entire serviceable aircraft belonging to all airlines had been carried out by a joint inspection team comprising members from Airworthiness Directorate of CAA and Airlines Quality Assurance Department.

“Aircraft to be inspected were brought out of the service for inspection and for ratification of shortcomings found during inspection, these aircraft were permitted further operation only upon satisfactory removal of shortcomings,” it said.

As for Safety Audit of Airlines by international experts, the report said in response to emails between the CAA director (airspace and aerodromes regulations) and representatives of International Civil Aviation Organisation from February 2012 onwards, the ICAO’s field operation officer had shared with CAA a draft project outline for provision of its assistance in conducting an in-depth audit of Pakistan airlines.

The said document has been under review of the relevant CAA directorate to ensure that it encompasses all relevant aspects. The report said the ICAO’s field operations officer had been approached by the CAA to seek information about their fee schedule for the services to be rendered by the relevant international experts so that the CAA might overview budgetary estimations.

During previous hearing, the court had directed the CAA to submit the said report.

The CAA said besides special one time shakedown inspections and organisation approval inspections, Airworthiness Directorate of CAA also continuously monitored the airline maintenance-related activities of the aircraft and organisations through spot checks and ramp inspections of the aircraft.

The petition is jointly filed by Ms Marvi and family members of some passengers of the ill-fated plane which crashed on July 28, 2010, leaving 152 persons killed. They have prayed the court to order independent inquiry into the crash and also provision of appropriate compensation to the bereaved families.

Omar Farooq defended petitioners, while Waseem Sajjad appeared for Airblue.

As several of the legal heirs of the deceased passengers had complained of delay in receiving compensation from Airblue, the court had during previous hearings ordered the airline’s management to pay compensation through the high court.

Several of the legal heirs filed succession certificates with the high court requesting to pay them compensation.

The bench directed Mr Omar to file indemnity bonds along with succession certificates. It observed that under the Succession Act, it was mandatory to submit indemnity bonds to ensure transparency in payment of compensation.

Until now, Airblue has paid a compensation of Rs5.5 million to around 100 families of the plane crash victims.