PESHAWAR: A clash between the PIA employees union and engineers left three ground staffers of the airlines’ engineering section wounded and caused delay in international and domestic flights at Bacha Khan International Airport on Sunday, sources said.

They said that the scuffle between PIA engineers and others employees occurred owing to stoppage of payment of allowance and closure of night shift. They said that the incident affected schedule of a domestic and two international flights of PIA.

Two of the wounded engineers identified as Israr Ahmad and Abdul Rauf were taken to Combined Military Hospital (CMH) for treatment and checkup.

As a result of the clash, an Abu Dhabi-bound flight scheduled to depart at 4:45pm and a Kuala Lumpur-bound flight scheduled for 5:45mp were delayed. A domestic flight leaving for Karachi was also delayed due to the brawl.

The passengers of the international flights were sitting in the departure lounge at the airport as the authorities scrambled to bring down tempers, officials said, adding that boarding passes were already issued to passengers and they waited at the departure lounge for several hours.

Employees union and engineers come to blows over stoppage of allowance, closure of night shift

Sources said that the management had directed to lock all offices at the airport because of closure of the night shift. The airlines had stopped payment of allowances to the employees working in the night shift.

They said that engineers and office-bearers of the union were at loggerhead when the former closed the offices of the affected employees. It resulted in scuffle between the engineers and other employees which led to injuries to three employees of engineering section, they added.

An official said that at least 25 employees attacked the engineers, who received slight injuries and subsequently they were taken to CMH.

He said that under the aviation rules, the wounded engineers would have to go through extensive physical and psychological checkup at the hospital before rejoining their duty.

Senior officers of the management were negotiating between the two sides to resolve the stalemate. He said that flights might depart for their destinations in the late hours.

An official associated with the airlines’ engineering section told Dawn that demand of the employees was unwarranted because night shift was closed on the directives of the headquarters. He said that management stopped payment of night shift allowances to the employees. He added that night operation for Peshawar was stopped on the directives of law enforcement agencies and engineers had nothing to do with it.

Domestic and foreign airlines had suspended night operation for Peshawar since June 2014 when militants fired at PIA’s aircraft before landing. A female passenger was killed and two stewards were injured in the attack. Later, another aircraft of PIA came under attack in the areas adjacent to Frontier Region of Darra Adamkhel.

Presently only Shaheen Air, a subsidiary of Pakistan Air Force, is operating night flights from Peshawar.

The suspension of night operation has affected hundreds of employees associated with different airlines. The airlines from Gulf States had stopped flights for several months due to insecurity and resumed flights after security clearance.

Published in Dawn, October 19th , 2015

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