KARACHI: The Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has sacked its chief operations officer, Zia Qadir Qureshi, it was learnt on Saturday.

According to sources, Mr Qureshi was sacked on Friday because he could not perform his duties according to work standards of the PIA. They said he had also failed to achieve objectives for which he had been hired.

Take a look: SC orders auditor general to complete PIA audit within 10 weeks

Responding to Dawn queries, PIA spokesperson Mashhood Tajwar confirmed on Saturday that Mr Qureshi’s contract had been terminated.

The Auditor General’s office termed Mr Qureshi’s appointment an “undue favour”. It called for the immediate termination of his services and an action against those who had hired him.

The sources said Mr Qureshi, said to be a blue-eyed boy of adviser to the former prime minister on aviation Mehtab Abbasi, was hired on a contract at Rs1.5 million per month on June 5, 2017. Mr Qureshi was just three months short of reaching the age of superannuation (October 2017) at the time of his appointment.

In the termination letter, issued by PIA’s Chief Human Resources Officer Asma Bajwa who herself is a contractual employee, told Mr Qureshi that “continuation of your appointment beyond the age of superannuation in Oct 2017 was subject to bi-annual review of your performance”.

The sources said Mr Qureshi was called twice for performance review meetings but he could not attend them.

Published in Dawn, August 19th, 2018