ISLAMABAD: In the wake of the government’s decision to privatise the loss-making national flag carrier, the Supreme Court on Friday ordered Pakistan International Airlines Managing Director Musharraf Rasool Cyan to furnish audited financial statements of the corporation for the last ten years.

Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar also summoned the head of the airline to appear in court on April 12 along with all financial records.

The court also ordered all MDs who had at some point over the last ten years held office in the PIA to appear before the bench next Thursday.

Almost two months ago, Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi had given the green light to privatise the PIA. The decision has been heavily criticised by opposition parties, especially the Pakistan Peoples Party. Earlier in 2012, the then chief justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammed Chaudhry had summoned the then chairman PIA and MDs over Transparency International Pakistan’s (TI) apprehensions about the performance of the airline.

Orders former MDs of loss-making national flag carrier to appear in court on 12th

The TI had asked the court to take legal action over the many scandals in the PIA that included allegations of corruption and incompetence on the part of the management. The TI had pointed out, among other issues, the practice of purchasing aircraft at exorbitant lease payments and the decision to cancel 1,200 flights that had contributed to a financial lose of Rs410 million.

Similar petitions had also sought a declaration from the court to order probes into the management affairs of the airline to scrutinise allegations of corruption, gross negligence, and inefficiency.

During the proceedings, the court was told then that the total accumulating losses of the airlines had swollen to Rs140 billion in 2012 compared to Rs100bn at the end of 2011.

Voting rights

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court bench asked two representatives of 18 major political parties of the country to attend a presentation prepared by the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) on the right of vote to overseas Pakistan.

In pursuance of earlier court directions, the presentation will be held in the auditorium of the Supreme Court on April 12 at 3.30pm. Secretaries of the cabinet division, representatives of the ministries of information technology, law and justice, parliamentary affairs, overseas Pakistanis and human resource development, interior and foreign affairs will also attend the presentation.

Chief Election Commissioner retired Justice Sardar Muhammad Raza and the four members of the Election Commission of Pakistan have also been invited.

For third-party evaluation purposes, information technology experts from the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), National University of Science and Technology (NUST), Institute of Business Administration Karachi (IBA) and all provincial Information Technology Boards, as well as other experts or officers the ECP deems appropriate will also attend.

Personnel of print and electronic media as well as senior counsel Bilal Hassan Minto has also been asked to attend the briefing.

Published in Dawn, April 7th, 2018