LAHORE - An inquiry exonerated a senior PIA catering officer from charges like misuse of vehicles and issuance of fake gate passes.

A show-cause notice was issued to the Food Services deputy general manager (DGM) North on November 16 by the chief operating officer (COO) PIA on the basis of aforementioned charges. The COO sought reply from DGM Hassan Qureshi within seven days and warned him of action in case of failure to submit reply.

At the same time, an inquiry committee was headed by Tariq Majeed, station manager of PIA at Allama Iqbal International Airport, Lahore. The catering officer was facing the charge that he issued two gate passes on October 1, 2018; both were of catering shipments destined for Sialkot. One of the gate pass was signed by store and purchase officer, Lahore and the other was issued and signed by him.

It was alleged that items mentioned in a gate pass were never demanded by the Sialkot airport and consequently were never booked nor received at Sialkot. He said that possibility of error in writing was ruled out by cross checking the rightful demand and supply of catering shipments to Sialkot station for November 1, 2018 instead of October 1, 2018 as the day ticked on the gate pass was Thursday. The show cause notices reads, “The above act of issuing fake gate passes and misusing vehicles is not acceptable by any means and tantamount to misconduct under PIAC employees Regulations 1985”.

DGM Qureshi submitted his written reply to show cause notice and in the meanwhile an inquiry committee was formed headed by Station Manager PIA Lahore Tariq Majeed. The matter was investigated by the inquiry committee and questionnaires were sent to DGM Qureshi and Syeda Arshad Bibi, a senior Field Services Officer Lahore (who was applicant in the matter). After receiving replies from both parties the committee in its report found that applicant Arshad Bibi flashed an email to senior management of PIA from her private e-mail address in which she pointed out serious discrepancies in food items supply to PIA. She also leveled serious allegations against serious management of food services Lahore. The committee recommended that applicant could not provide any concrete and solid evidence in support of her e-mail version.