LARKANA: Sindh High Court’s Larkana circuit bench on Wednesday granted two weeks’ time to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and PIA to submit report on the new policy for resuming flight operations from Moenjodaro.

The bench, comprising Justices Muhammad Saleem Jessar and Adnan Iqbal Chaudhry, passed the order while hearing a constitutional petition filed by Sajid Hussain Mahesar.

The petitioner, a practicing lawyer, personally pleaded the case while Syed Nasir Ali Shah, additional director legal of the CAA, Abid Qaimkhani, additional director of air transport and Haroon Abbasi, assistant manager legal of PIA, along with Imtiaz A. Bhutto, general manager sales of PIA, represented their organisations and submitted their statements.

The official respondents submitted that the aviation policy 2015 was going to be replaced by the new policy 2019, adding that the cabinet division would approve it. According to the new policy, the government of Pakistan was going to issue licences to different companies for operating charter planes for all routes, including the secondary routes, they said. Therefore, unless the new policy was accorded approval, they were unable to make tentative statement, they said and requested next date of hearing. Their contention carried weight, the bench said and granted two weeks’ time to them. The petition was adjourned for April 10.

The advocate [petitioner] said that he had filed the petition purely in public interest. Larkana being the divisional headquarter had an important number of hospitals, including Larkana Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Radiotherapy (LINAR), which served people from different parts of Sindh and also catered to medical needs of a good part of population from Balochistan. Also a medical university had been established here, the petitioner said, adding that relatives of patients suffering from carcinoma faced difficulty in shifting patients in acute emergency to Karachi. The patients of acute medical emergency die on account of their delay in reaching Karachi, the petitioner said.

He said Moenjodaro, the World Heritage Site, was located near Larkana. Foreign and local visitors face difficulty in arriving at the Indus Civilisation’s site due to non-availability of adequate air travel facilities.

He also requested the court to order for reviving the old air route of flight operation from Karachi to Sukkur via Moenjodaro.

Published in Dawn, March 21st, 2019