THE Peshawar High Court has expressed dissatisfaction over the standard of the inquiry into the Airblue crash (Jan 20). The news item shows equally inept arrangements for paying compensation to the families of the victims.

Both the ministry of defence and CAA must accept responsibility for the shoddy inquiry and Airblue for the delay in payment of compensation.

This was not a case of small aircraft accident. It was the worst disaster occurring in Pakistan which took away 152 valuable lives. It remained in the headlines for a long time and was also discussed in these columns.

It seems that the federal government was quite happy about the investigation ordered by the DG CAA by his own staff. The gravity of the situation demanded that the federal government should have intervened and itself ordered a board of inquiry under rule 282 etc of the Civil Aviation Rules, 1994. After all, these rules are meant to be used.

The chairman and members of the board should have been composed of specialists of high calibre having legal knowledge and experience in aeronautical engineering or other specialist knowledge as provided in the rules.

This ought to have evoked confidence in the conduct and outcome of the inquiry which is now lacking. This would have also obviated the need for a fresh inquiry ordered by the high court which appears rather late in the day.

As regards the delay in payment of compensation to more than half of the families of the victims and many court cases filed by the anxious families of the victims, blame must be shared by Airblue, despite the high amount of compensation stated to have been given to some.

I feel it was the duty of the airline to inform the families through prominent newspaper advertisements and other means that they have to have the necessary succession certificates to claim the compensation. Had this been done, there would been fewer problems and minimum litigation.

S. M. ANWAR Karachi