LAHORE, Oct 25: PIA’s new chairman Lt-Gen Asif Yaseen Malik (retired) has sought details of the people appointed in the airlines on ‘political grounds’, especially against important positions.

Presiding over the first meeting of the board of directors here on Thursday after assuming the charge, Mr Malik, who is also the defence secretary, was reportedly not happy over the overall performance of PIA’s certain wings.

Sources informed Dawn that the PIA flight that brought the chairman from Karachi to Lahore (to attend the meeting) had dirty washrooms which made him annoyed.

“How will the national airline progress with this kind of attitude of our staff?” he said in the meeting.

“I do not want slackness on the part of the employees as they will have to deliver,” he warned.

The sources said Mr Malik sought details of the employees appointed on political grounds against important positions from newly-appointed Managing Director Capt Junaid Younus.

Capt Younus briefied the meeting on the ‘successful’ pre-Haj operation of the PIA.

A PIA official told this reporter that a “culture of slackness” prevailed in the airlines and such elements got strength during the current regime’s tenure.

Board members Syed Omar Sharif Bokhari, Malik Nazir Ahmed and Younus Waqar were also present in the meeting.