THE dismissal of two PIA engineers signals an escalation in the ongoing confrontation between the airline’s management and its technical staff. The top two office-bearers of the Society of Aircraft Engineers of Pakistan have been sacked on charges of unauthorised disclosure of official information and holding a press conference without permission from the management. According to a PIA spokesperson, both office-bearers had refused to join the inquiry, forgoing the opportunity to defend their position. The dismissals come at a time when PIA is struggling to maintain its flight schedule amid a two-and-a-half-month-long protest by its engineers seeking a pay raise and improved service conditions. The engineers’ refusal to issue fitness certificates clearing aircraft for flights has severely disrupted several domestic and international PIA flights, stranding hundreds of passengers. Its management has since alleged that the tactic is part of an effort to hamper the airline’s privatisation.

Given the simmering resistance against the privatisation of the loss-making state-owned airline, the allegations cannot be brushed aside. Yet neither can they be accepted at face value. The allegation that the engineering staff may be deliberately undermining the airline’s functioning for political or personal motives is grave and requires a transparent independent inquiry. Likewise, the engineers’ contention that they are refusing to certify only those planes they deem unfit for flying cannot be ignored. Safety concerns, if genuine, must not be dismissed as an act of insubordination. The invocation of the Essential Services Act to silence staff and dismissals in an opaque manner risks deepening mistrust within the company’s workforce. In this context, the management’s punitive actions against the leaders of the engineering staff could deepen the unrest within the airline and trigger an active protest. What is at stake is not merely a labour dispute, but public trust in the national carrier’s operational safety. It has only been a few months since the EU and the UK have lifted a prolonged ban on PIA flights on safety grounds. The government must, therefore, ensure that facts are independently verified, and that justice is not only done but seen to be done. Anything less would further damage an airline already weighed down by years of mismanagement, political interference and eroding public confidence at a time when its privatisation is being positioned as a test case for broader economic reform.

Published in Dawn, November 8th, 2025