RAWALPINDI: The Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) management has decided to expedite the acquisition of ground support equipment.

The decision has been taken after the Saturday’s situation, which was created by the delay in handing over dead bodies to their heirs at Islamabad International Airport (IIA).

The delay led to beating of a staff member by the relatives of one of the deceased.

However, the PIA acknowledged that the inauguration of new airport was done a little early, therefore, for the time being some difficulties were being noticed which would soon be sorted out.

On Saturday, 14 bodies arrived at IIA from the UK, Saudi Arabia, and Karachi on different flights within a span of two hours. The bodies remained lying in the scorching heat for about two hours due to unavailability of ground handling equipment.

One of the staff members of ground handling wing wrote to the management soon after the staff member was beaten on Saturday that it had been a daily routine as they had only one outdated tractor and no ramp vehicle. He also said that his department had been looking for upgraded ground handling equipment for long but to no avail.

He said if a tractor is hired from private handling agency, it costs $40 per hours and for a 24/7 per shift cost will be approximately $500 which is not viable because per month rent will be more than the cost of a tractor itself.

Taking notice of the Saturday’s incident, President and CEO PIA Dr Musharraf Rasool Cyan on Tuesday directed the supply chain management department to expedite the acquisition of ground support equipment.

The equipment included new tractors, fork lifters, ground power units (GPUs), load loebers, buses and tug masters.

The CEO PIA Musharraf Rasool also instructed to form special task teams to take care of emergency situations especially for the handling of bodies which are airlifted by PIA without any charges from across the world.

The PIA CEO had ordered an investigation into the delay in handing dead bodies to their heirs at new airport on Saturday and assured that responsibility will be fixed.

Published in Dawn, May 30th, 2018