KARACHI: The Supreme Court on Saturday expressed dismay over Airblue’s failure to pay compensation for victims of the 2010 air crash and directed the airline to deposit the compensation amount in the court on Sunday.

Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar chided acting managing director of Airblue Junaid Khan when he said compensation for most of the victims had been paid, but was unable to provide exact figures and conceded that families of all victims had not been compensated so far due to litigation.

Also read: Captain, air traffic control to blame for Airblue crash

A three-judge bench headed by the chief justice took up the issue when a family member of a victim of the air crash submitted an application to the bench while it was hearing a case relating to allegations of fake degrees held by pilots of different airlines at the Supreme Court’s Karachi registry. The bench also took up some other petitions and suo motu cases.

Imposes fine on two airlines over delaying tactics used in submitting details of degrees of their staff

The applicant told the court that despite directives of the Peshawar High Court, he and heirs of some other victims had not yet been compensated, adding that the airline was bound to pay Rs5 million to each affected family.

Replying to a question, he said 147 people were killed when the plane crashed into the Margalla hills in Islamabad on July 28, 2010.

The chief justice directed the airline to submit a cheque of compensation not paid yet along with the list of the victims as well as record of litigation to the additional registrar of the apex court in Islamabad on Sunday.

The bench also directed the inspector general of Islamabad police to produce the record regarding another air crash of a plane belonging to Bhoja Air after a relative of a victim said a judicial inquiry into the 2012 crash had fixed responsibility for the accident.

He said he had lodged a case against the airline owners and others held responsible for the air crash by the judicial commission, but police and the Federal Investigation Agency were apparently not interested in investigating the case.

The chief justice also directed the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to get the degrees of staff of local airlines verified from the universities concerned in 15 days.

He expressed displeasure over delaying tactics used by Airblue and Shaheen International Airline in complying with the court orders on alleged fake degrees of their staff and imposed fine on both.

The acting MD of Airblue told the bench that the record about them had been handed over to the CAA on May 9. The chief justice came down hard on the acting MD for submitting record with an inordinate delay. He observed that it seemed to be intentional delay on the part of the airline and directed the acting MD to deposit Rs50,000 in the bank account of the Fatimid Foundation.

The bench also expressed resentment when Ehsan Sehbai of Shaheen airline sought further time for submitting details about degrees of its staff.

The chief justice observed that despite the passage of three to four months, the airline had done nothing and imposed Rs100,000 fine on the airline to be deposited in the account of Fatimid Foundation.

Foreign content on TV channels The bench issued notices to the Pakistan Electronic Regulatory Authority and all private TV channels on an application seeking ban on foreign content.

Referring to an award ceremony recently aired by a private television channel, the chief justice said the way women participants dressed in the programme was not acceptable. “We are liberal people, but we must also adhere to our Islamic and cultural values.

What has been shown on TV is not our culture,” he added.

Published in Dawn, May 13th, 2018