The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Thursday ordered the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) to allocate a 10 per cent quota for women while recruiting new pilots.

Last month, Komal Zafar, an aspirant for a pilot job, had filed a petition in the LHC accusing the national carrier of ignoring the female quota in its advertisement regarding new recruitments and terming it "unconstitutional".

The petition had been accepted by LHC judge Farrukh Farhan Khan, who issued a stay order on the recruitment process on March 16 until a final ruling was passed.

Zafar's lawyer argued before the judge today that even though the court had stayed the recruitment process of pilots until further orders, the airlines continued the process without allocating any quota for female applicants.

He urged the court to charge the national flag-carrier's officials with contempt for not implementing the court's order.

After hearing all arguments, Justice Khan ordered the PIA recruitment manager to start the hiring process afresh and include 10pc quota for women.