REFERENCE Himayat Ali Khan’s letter ‘PIA pensioners’ (June 6). Why is the writer surprised at Capt Yousufzai’s indifference towards pensioners when he himself was the Managing Director? We should know that MDs don’t trifle with the affairs of ‘toothless’ pensioners.

Most PIA pensioners have served the airline way beyond their call of duty. Three of my eight 1956 batch-mates, First Officer Azam, Capt. Johri and Capt. Anwarullah, gave their lives in fatal crashes. Capt Pirzada near Chittagong and Capt Sarfaraz in Delhi went the same way. There are many others.

In the 1965 and 1971 wars, Pakistan hardly had a worthwhile ‘Transport Command’. PIA’s big jets were in the forefront.

With the arms embargo slapped by the US and blocked air-spaces, we were dodging fighter aircraft and giving wide birth to heavy artillery around the Indian peninsula. Capt Mubashir, First Officer Jawed and Navigation Officer Cheema are still in their aircraft, in a watery grave somewhere deep in the Arabian Sea. A crashed PIA Boeing 707 was a landmark at the threshold of Qurumuchy runway in China for months.

We would like to believe that PIA was awarded a pension plan with ‘commutation’ facilities, in appreciation of our relentless services. ‘Commutation’ essentially meant that we could take a loan equal to five years of pension and pay it back by accepting only half our monthly pension for ten years.

‘Commutation’ proved to be a Trojan horse. PIA mandarins were in control. A few wise retirees refused this ‘gift-horse’ and have lived happily ever after. The majority, however, fell for this trap.

Full pension is restored immediately after 10 years of retirement for government employees, bankers and defence personnel and others. But not in PIA!

I retired on the April 4, 1982. My pension loan is paid back more than three times over, but I still receive only half my pension after 34 years of retirement.

In my eighties now, another six years of half-pension and I’ll have paid back my loan four times over. I shouldn’t expect to live that long, but just in case I do, will I then get my full pension? Of course I won’t!

Capt S. Afaq Rizvi

Karachi

Published in Dawn, June 19th, 2016