Employees of Shaheen Air International (SAI) took to the streets to protest the non-payment of their salaries outstanding for five months in Karachi and Lahore.
As per the details, around 4,000 employees of Shaheen Airlines have not been paid for the last five months. The employees staged protest demonstrations outside Karachi Press Club and Lahore Press Club. They vowed to expand their protest across the country if the issue was not resolved.
Media reports said that the acting chief executive officer (CEO) of the airline, Javed Sehbai, has asked the airline employees to direct their ongoing protest toward the Federal Board of Revenue and Civil Aviation Authority.
Reportedly, he told the protesting employees to press FBR to de-freeze the airline’s accounts.
The acting CEO advised the employee to stage protest against the Board, saying that if the board de-freeze the airline accounts, the outstanding salaries would be paid to them.
Upon this call, the SAI workers across the city started gathering outside the Press Club in Lahore and Karachi. The protesters urged the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to restore the license of the airline, besides aking the FBR to open the airline’s bank accounts.
Shaheen Airlines Operations Suspended
It is pertinent to mention here that Shaheen Airlines is a defaulter of CAA by Rs.1.5 billion. The default led the CAA to suspend its license.
However, the airlines protested the closure and approached the Sindh High Court against the regulator’s decision. Upon the court orders, the CAA had restored the airlines’ operations.
The court had further directed SAI to pay its dues in installment. The airlines did not comply and CAA closed its Lahore office and other airports across the country a week ago along with issuing notices to the airline management to pay their dues at the earliest.
