PIA sacks five crew members 'questioned' by London authority
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KARACHI: The management of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) on Tuesday terminated services of five crew members on flight PK-788 from London to Karachi for violating rules and regulations.
A day earlier it had been reported that United Kingdom's customs authority detained five PIA crew members from the same flight — PK-788 — on charges of smuggling and money laundering.
Know more: London authorities detain five PIA crew over smuggling, money laundering.
At that time a PIA spokesperson had said that UK’s border security force had stopped the crew for questioning, adding that they had not been detained. The spokesperson said five crew members were questioned more than others but later returned to Karachi on their flight.
The spokesperson had also dismissed reports of currency and cellphones being recovered from the crew.
While today’s press release does not specify the violations conducted by the crew, it said PIA had taken stern action on violation of rules and regulations by five cabin crew members during departure of the London-Karachi flight on June 7.
The services of all five cabin crew have been terminated forthwith, the news release said, adding that the crew brought a bad name to the national carrier.
In August last year, customs authorities in Rawalpindi had arrested a PIA crew member after they recovered 37 smart phones, three tablets and 5,000 British pounds from him.
The assistant collector customs said that they had intelligence that a flight crew member would smuggle a large quantity of mobile phones into the country from UK.
Read more: PIA crew member held for smuggling smart phones.
Read more
On DawnNews
Comments (47) Closed
Jun 09, 2015 10:28pm
PIA crew have been doing it for years and they all do that. They think it is their right to make the trips overseas profitable for them so they fill their suitcase with items they can flog on both legs of the journey. They have no shame. No one notices it and no one cares. It is NOT the name of the airlines that is being tarnished. It is PAKISTAN they have brought shame to. For the first time in the history of PIA 5 crew members have been fired. They should do that with every single crew member. I am happy about the result but can someone tell the nation what rules did they break?. I guess we all need to and deserve to know that.
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Jun 09, 2015 10:36pm
Lately Pakistan government has been doing excellent work, action against Axact IT company and the officials, introducing good bus services, cleaning up the PIA mess.
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Jun 09, 2015 10:38pm
I hope this is not under social media pressure.
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Jun 09, 2015 10:39pm
conduct an inquiry and do it properly instead like this without process.
now they will challenge this and win back in courts even PIA will not want them back.
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Jun 09, 2015 11:05pm
why is it always others , like NY Times and now british authorities, telling us that our people are corrupt and we could only react to such situations.??
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Jun 09, 2015 11:07pm
Termination is good thing if justified. But what about elite class taking money out of country underhands, are they above law?
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Jun 09, 2015 11:09pm
In most of PIA flights that fly overseas, nearly 5-15% passengers (that's my opinion) are passengers that are PIA employees and are travelling on free tickets. In my other opinion, if we really want PIA to flourish again and regain it's past glory, we must hire international crew. Look at Emirates, Qatar, Etihad and some other airlines. Their crew is international and hence they do their jobs with utmost honesty and diligence.
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Jun 09, 2015 11:24pm
The corruption is also prevalent at the airport. I recall when I was departing on an international flight from Lahore. One of the administrative staff directly asked me to bribe him (in dollars). I was shocked. He threatened that he will delay the processing of my luggage and will cause me to miss the flight. I was with my wife and three young kids and all of them were horrified with this open display of corruption.
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Jun 09, 2015 11:26pm
Why terminate them when yesterday PIA spokesman insisted these crew members didn't do anything wrong.
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Jun 09, 2015 11:27pm
It is time that our national leaders must clearly speak to the nation to follow the moral values of life.They must tell the nation that lies,cheating,frauds and other misdeeds are not welcomed in the world and we Pakistanis have very bad image in this regard because of our deeds.So there will zero tolerance against those who bring bad name to the country .Real action will bring results otherwise Pakistanis will always be under suspicion while travelling abroad.
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Jun 09, 2015 11:33pm
@Sunil ...Sunil, you are giving way too much credit to Pak Government. They're "cleaning" PIA because they got caught by British authorities. Had they not been caught, would have been business as usual.
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Jun 09, 2015 11:38pm
I don't feel sorry for bit who doesn't care about the country reputation. Also find out who is sending the money
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Jun 09, 2015 11:39pm
I bet they will be reinstated after a phone call.
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Jun 09, 2015 11:41pm
Somehow , Pakistan stays in limelight . I wonder why British authorities let them go.
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Jun 09, 2015 11:42pm
I remember many years ago when i used to live in Karachi, I had a neighbour who worked in PIA. He once jokingly told me that each inbound PIA International flight is full of smuggled items including perfumes, cosmetics, electronics and of course, alcohol. All these items are smuggled mostly by the PIA crew who have 'Setting' with the FIA and Customs officials at Karachi airport. Surprised by his statement I asked him if he was sure that PIA flights were involved in smuggling of alcohol into Pakistan, to which he laughed out loud and said if all the alcohol bottles in a PIA flight broke for some reason, the whole plane will be flooded and in fact you will see the booze seeping out of the plane's tail. I still remember how disgusted I felt and from 1999 to this date, I have never traveled with PIA again.
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Jun 09, 2015 11:55pm
@Muhammad. Yes, indeed the nation wants to know if our politicians are above the law. They have looted the country and keep coming back to do it again and again! It says a lot about the nation also which elects them.
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Jun 09, 2015 11:56pm
Yesterday spoke person for PIA flatly denied all that had been reported in the News Paper, today they have terminated all the five persons questioned by the London Authority.
What is the Truth, the Reality and the Fact behind all this! How could PIA terminate services of these crew members without proving their guilt or crime! Bringing bad name to Pakistan by only Five crew members of PIA is if punishable under the Law than there are Thousands of others in and outside the Government who have caused greater harm to Pakistan than these few.
Expose the real culprits rather than victimizing weaker segment or the scape goats in PIA. Bring out the Black Sheep!
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Jun 10, 2015 12:06am
Gentlemen! it is not only pia, all other organizations are equally corrupt. No where rules regarding reward/ punishment, are in place.Rather not practised. Though our topic is different but to strengthen my argument against corruption,would people recapitulate what happened to cases against retired generals. who were to be prosecuted by the supreme court. But, former army chief took stand over the issue saying that they would be indicted in military courts, but nothing heard ever since?
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Jun 10, 2015 12:21am
@Noman I know exactly what you mean. These people have no shame. Even if you recorded him asking for bribe, he would have found a way to go scot free. No accountability and no fear of the law. No fear of the God as well.
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Jun 10, 2015 12:26am
@iluvkarachi. International crew is hired to accommodate different nationalities traveling on these middle eastern airlines.It has nothing to do with honesty and diligence.
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Jun 10, 2015 12:30am
They only join to fill their coffers. ...passengers are just something they have to put up with.
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Jun 10, 2015 12:35am
There is no more need for this white elephant it must be shut down there are alot of alternates available for air travel I never travel on this airline anymore like my fellow compatriots in Middle east due to worse service and delipated planes
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Jun 10, 2015 12:40am
PIA crew has been laid off for a few days. Since they did not break any law on Pakistani soil, they will go to a court of law in Pakistan where they would not only be acquitted but also reinstated with back pay etc. Each one of them must be a close associate of some politician, so their reinstatement is not far off.
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Jun 10, 2015 12:46am
Rare good decision
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Jun 10, 2015 12:47am
Imprison them too!
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Jun 10, 2015 12:57am
Perhaps the spokesman should be next to be fired for providing false information to the media earlier, if there is any accountability at PIA that is.
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Jun 10, 2015 01:04am
i have never heard of any organization in which family members can get stuff for free. I have friends who have their fathers working in PIA and they fly internationally like we travel from Rawalpindi to islamabad and don't have to pay a Dime or close to nothing . They should stop that and privatize PIA or give management control to airlines i.e Emiratus or Itehad etc
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Jun 10, 2015 01:07am
@iluvkarachi you are right, but there is no rule of law in Pakistan who is going to make sure they are safe for two days stay in Pakistan?
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Jun 10, 2015 01:32am
@Muhammad good point raised by you brothe.
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Jun 10, 2015 01:58am
@iluvkarachi you are wrong. PIA employees travel on SA (subject to availabiliavailavailability), unless they are on official duty.
Which means they will only get a seat for which there is no paid passenger.
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Jun 10, 2015 02:15am
such a bad name these people bring to us,sacking them is not enough they should be charged
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Jun 10, 2015 02:22am
@shah Happy! because justice has been served. But they will be back to work soon.
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Jun 10, 2015 02:30am
Yes every one talking about this but any one check that the crews are being taking cared by there organisation all there pay and dues are promptly paid. The union is working without bias and corruptions. Some one investigate they will find shocking revelations.
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Jun 10, 2015 02:30am
@Sunil its all topi drama. the politicians are on the loose still.
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Jun 10, 2015 02:31am
No issue. When new govt will come. these 5 crew members will be again on job with back dated promotions and perks. Very strange, you are not working but get full salary once reinstated. Then this will be called politically motivated terminations
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Jun 10, 2015 03:08am
Once upon a time PIA was considered the best airline in the world known for providing best service to its customers.
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Jun 10, 2015 03:11am
@Saad(DXB) ...... Very good personal information. People need to know.
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Jun 10, 2015 03:30am
This is yet one more case of we being lax and letting others catch our criminals while also buying bad name for the country. Until we realize that white collar and privileged committing crimes are criminals, this is going to keep happening.
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Jun 10, 2015 03:43am
Smart action from UK customs and also PIA admin. What about money transferred by BIG fishes, like Mr. Nawaz sharif, Zardari and others. They have huge properties and assets abroad.
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Jun 10, 2015 04:00am
@iluvkarachi - crew is not the problem mostly. Its the mismanagement of funds and misplaced priorities. Corruption is main problem in PIA and the crew can not do much corruption.
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Jun 10, 2015 04:02am
@Reform It can happen in a democratic country like India where a Lt.Genl was court martialed because he tried to do a favour to his aquitance when he sent a poposal for leasing military land to be leased to him for opening a school in Assam.
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Jun 10, 2015 04:07am
Salam Nawaz shareef sab for that review......
we are with you for ever
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Jun 10, 2015 05:15am
Shame on PIA
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Jun 10, 2015 07:05am
Wait for the quiet update where the sacked employees were quietly reinstated because of lack of evidence... in other words, pressure from the PIA union and politicians.
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Jun 10, 2015 08:19am
Very simple your Nation head of staff doing same thing why so much hopella about some ( chum change) move on restore them and ,terminate them from international flights for 1 years
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Jun 10, 2015 09:58am
Where is the system (check and balance) within PIA like institutions? When you don't see a system within the institution, it only and only reflect that the leadership of that institution is corrupt, not all but most of them. If that is not true, why our institution's leadership not being able to find out such corrupt people within the system, why all the time international body identified faults in our system. The one and only reason is the leadership of our institution's which of course included the MNA'a, MPA'a, Senator's etc.
Rather terminating such people from the institution, they all should be tracked to find out the whole chain within the system. So shall every person who is part of such chain within the system, should be booked.
But a million dollar question is, who will do that? Is that the responsibility of NYT, IMF, ABD, UNO, NATO like institutions or ...............????
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Jun 10, 2015 10:17am
Appreciate the good effort by PIA management.
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