ISLAMABAD, May 24: The Senate Standing Committee on Defence on Tuesday vetoed the findings of its own sub-committee and allowed the PIA management to proceed with the sale of its six Airbus aircraft for $10.1 million. The standing committee, which met under the chairmanship of Senator Nisar Memon, had formed a three-member subcommittee, comprising two members of the treasury and one from the opposition, on April 14 to probe the sale of the A300B4 type aircraft.
Press was barred from the committee’s meeting which provoked its opposition members to stage a token walkout.
Two members of the sub-committee, senators Asif Jatoi and Rukhsana Zuberi, had raised serious questions about transparency in the sale.
In a note of dissent submitted to the standing committee, opposition Senators Farhatullah Babar and Rukhsana Zuberi, said: “The sale of six airworthy aircraft for a paltry sum of $10.1 million and leasing of aircraft at 2.2 times higher cost (of 22 million dollars) is not sound judgment and seems to be based on other considerations.”
The note said the sale of A300B4 aircraft should be dropped, as recommended by the sub-committee, in the national interest and in the interest of tax-payers.
“PIA failed to make a cogent and satisfactory case to sell the aircraft and questions about transparency and feasibility persist,” said the dissenting senators.
However, an official handout issued by the Senate secretariat said the PIA management gave satisfactory replies to “most” of the questions raised by the sub-committee.
Though conceding that some of the questions had remained unanswered when the committee gave the green signal to the PIA, the official handout said the committee chairman, Nisar Memon, “directed the PIA chairman to give a written response to the queries of the members within a week, which were not answered earlier.”
According to the press release, Mr Memon, rejecting the contention of senators Farhatullah Babar and Rukhsana Zuberi, ruled that since “all the apprehensions” expressed in the sub- committee report had been answered satisfactorily by the PIA, as such the “commercial” organization should not be hindered in its operations.
The handout said Mr Memon’s ruling was in line with the professed statement of all the members present that they would not interfere in the operations of the PIA unless it was proved beyond any doubt that a wrongdoing was happening.
When contacted, Senator Memon said the aircraft had completed their life and based on the safety considerations for the passengers, the PIA took the decision to sell the aircraft.
“There was no point in keeping the aircraft when they were not airworthy,” he said.
However, Senator Rukhsana Zuberi challenged Mr Memon’s contentions.
She told journalists at the PPP media centre that the advertisement put by the PIA in the newspapers for the sale of its A300B4 fleet itself said the aircraft were JAR145 compliant and airworthy.
She said the PIA was replacing A300B4 with six used A310 aircraft on lease. The leased aircraft were projected as “new aircraft” when five of them were of 1992 vintage and were in storage prior to the PIA leasing them.
She said with the A300B4 fleet operating with the PIA, there should be no need to dry or wet lease aircraft at all. The PIA is on record with the Senate that with the retirement of A300B4 fleet, the national flag carrier will require to wet lease aircraft based on their needs at projected cost of $22 million, she said.
Defence Minister Rao Sikander Iqbal, PIA Chairman Tariq Kirmani, State Minister for Defence Zahid Hamid, and senators Nisar Memon, Mohammad Akram, Naeem Hussain Chattha, Farhatullah Babar and Rukhsana Zuberi attended the senate defence committee meeting.