The Supreme Court (SC) of Pakistan, on Monday, resumed the hearing of a case regarding the appointment of Air Marshal (retd.) Arshad Malik as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA).
The Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP), Gulzar Ahmed, while heading an apex court bench, deemed the report submitted by PIA in the court as ‘unsatisfactory’, which has raised questions about the performance of the national flag carrier.
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The CJP announced that there has been “no improvement in the performance of the national airline”, and emphasized the need for professional people to manage it.
In response to a query regarding the new recruitments by PIA, the CEO stated that it had not hired any new employees and had fired 2,000 workers instead.
The CJP remarked that many airlines have been shut down because of the aviation crisis amidst the pandemic, adding that PIA had incurred a debt worth billions of rupees because of its administration.
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A member of the bench, Justice Ejazul Ahsan, pointed out that PIA had been on the verge of bankruptcy even before the pandemic.
Furthermore, the CEO’s lawyer apprised the court that PIA planes cannot fly to the United Kingdom, to which the court directed the airline’s administration to have the European Commission’s ban on the airline’s operations lifted as soon as possible.
