ISLAMABAD, July 12: Pakistan People’s Party chairperson Benazir Bhutto on Wednesday demanded judicial probe into Fokkar crash.

She was commenting on media reports that the plane was not air-worthy and should never have been used.

According to media reports the Civil Aviation Authority has also said that the Fokker was not flight-worthy.

In a statement, she said that the crash and death of innocent lives had deeply pained her as well as the Pakistan People’s Party workers as well as the people at large.

Ms Bhutto said if the reports of the plane being not airworthy were true, the painful death of 45 innocent people would squarely fall on the shoulders of the military dictatorship.

She called for an impartial judicial inquiry to determine whether the fokker was airworthy and fix the responsibility in this regard.

Ms Bhutto rejected the military dictatorship’s anti-people policies where on the one hand the non-airworthy fokker planes were used for civilian passengers while the regime purchased two VVIP aircraft for $60 million and SAAB aircraft for over a billion dollars. She said that this was criminal to neglect passengers safety and exploit the resources of the state for the benefit of a few.

She said that the issue of replacement of Fokkers was also discussed in the Senate Committee on Defence sometime back and according to press reports the members had expressed their apprehensions over the safety of the aging aircraft but the regime did not take note.

PALPA: Pakistan Airline Pilots’ Association (Palpa) on Wednesday demanded independent and transparent inquiry into Fokker crash by experts of International Federation of Airline Pilots Associations (Ifalpa), writes our staff reporter.

Palpa President Captain Khalid Hamza, talking to this reporter, said a properly conducted accident investi-gation could improve aviation safety.

Experience had shown that the involvement of properly trained and experienced pilot investigators early in the investigation process is essential to a full and complete investigation and analysis.

He said it was unfortunate in Pakistan that neither the findings of the investigations were made public nor was the probe ever conducted independently by qualified aviation experts. It was a usual practice here that the blame was passed on to the pilot, he said.

Moreover, he said, all pilots would benefit if the factors underlying the accident were properly identified and resolved. Mentioning the credentials of Ifalpa, Captain Hamza said, it had the observer status with ICAO.

Among the many activities of Ifalpa the most well known one is its accident investigation and support work.