LAHORE -  PIA management has expedited the process of checking of educational credentials of the officials within airlines, said a top official of national flag carrier while talking to The Nation on Saturday.
He said that to maintain maximum transparency in promotion of the officers, PIA Board of Director has made compulsory for all officials to pass a test held under the aegis of National Testing Service (NTS). “We are holding senior management courses for our officials and various officers were taking part in these courses to upgrade their professional skills”, he added. He was of the view that after making NTS test mandatory by BOD for PIA officials transparency and merit would be promoted and officers would be promoted to next group only on merit. NTS has its own credibility and nobody would be in position to raise finger at the transparency of the promotion process.
He said that a good ACR was not a merit or parameter to gauge the capability of an officer, because different officers get their ACRs written by their senior on the basis of their good relations with them or after bribing their seniors in one way or the other.
The officer was of the view that government was serious to pull the airlines out of crises and for that it was taking unpopular decisions also. Imposing NTS in PIA was also one of the unpopular decisions and, for promotion, it would only help honest PIA employees and not the controversial officers.
When contacted, PIA spokesman said that a committee was formed in the past to check the educational certificates of the PIA employees and said committee was working as routine. He said that verification of degree of someone was a lengthy process and it takes time to be completed. But PIA management was on it and those whose degrees are found fake would be dealt with iron hand irrespective of their social or professional status.