Prime Minister Imran Khan has suspended officials of the management of Islamabad International Airport involved in ill-treatment of passengers.
On October 17th, a Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight from Saudi Arabia was scheduled to land at Peshawar airport. On account of bad weather in Peshawar, the flight was rerouted to Islamabad.
Upon landing at Islamabad airport, passengers were informed that they have to wait until the weather clears up above Peshawar.
After waiting for several hours, passengers wanted to go to Peshawar by road. Tensions between passengers and ASF personnel began to escalate when the passengers were denied an exit from the airport premises.
Passengers started protesting against ASF. Airport Security Force personnel used force to quell the protest. Videos of ASF personnel thrashing passengers surfaced on different social media platforms.
Federal Minister for Aviation Ghulam Sarwar took notice of the ill-treatment of passengers and ordered a probe into the incident.
On October 23rd, an inquiry committee was formed to prosecute the accused ASF personnel involved in the incident. The committee is headed by Brigadier Irfan Zafar. An official of Director rank is prosecuting the ASF personnel under the Pakistan Army Act 1952. Within 10 days, the committee will furnish its report.
Now, PM Khan has passed directives to Director General Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to initiate disciplinary proceedings against the involved ASF personnel.
Besides suspending ASF personnel, PM Khan has also suspended the PIA station manager and his team deployed at the time of the incident. Disciplinary action will be taken against them as well.
