ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on Aviation, which has opposed the dismissal of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) employees who hold fake degrees, is meeting today (Thursday) for an explanation from the management in this regard.

Chaired by Senator Mushahidullah Khan, the meeting will also consider a calling attention notice by Senator Sherry Rehman on the violation of human rights and the Industrial Relations Act by banning union activities through the Essential Services Act.

Most committee members have held that terminating staff from service is a drastic action. While the PIA management maintains that it is following Supreme Court orders to take necessary action against staff for possessing fake academic records, members, especially the chairman, have argued that the SC has not ordered for staff to be dismissed.

Read: Senate body slams PIA for sacking employees with fake degrees

“The court’s directives are to follow procedure under the rules,” Senator Khan said at the committee’s last meeting.He said the management could have taken less harsh disciplinary action, such as demoting employees who submitted fake educational records at the time of induction, or suspending their increments.

Senator Khan had also asked the PIA management to reconsider its decision and retain the employees, especially when it has allowed a handful of those who had submitted fake degrees to keep their jobs.

As many as 710 staff members submitted fake academic documents at the time of their induction. At least 467, but 201 of them obtained stays from the lower courts against their dismissals, and another 42 are facing disciplinary action. Among the dismissed are seven pilots and 73 cabin crew.

The committee was also displeased when, in a letter, the attorney general asked the Senate committee not to touch the issue of the dismissal of PIA employees to avoid contempt of court since the matter is sub judice.

According to Senator Khan, the attorney general took notice of the dismissal of PIA employees after it was reported in the media. It came as a shock to the committee chair, who wondered why the attorney general took notice of this particular issue. “I do not accept any advice from the attorney general unless asked for,” he had said in the previous meeting, calling the letter politically motivated.

Published in Dawn, April 11th, 2019