For the first time in PIA's history, low-paid staff have not been paid their minimal annual increments whilst the highest paid category (pilots) has been given a raise ranging from Rs 70,000 to Rs 25,000 per month in addition to increase in 'loss of license' from Rs 1.5 million to Rs 10 million. What does not make any sense is that these regular employees working for many years have been denied this basic minimal rise to offset a portion of inflation while over 8,500 daily wagers have been regularised and some 800 of them given backdated seniorities and lump sum compensation amounting to crores of rupees. PIA has recruited another batch of 80 pilots, even when there is no visible shortage of the breed in the foreseeable future. This has also impacted the salary bill by several crores. Even senior executives of PIA have reviewed their own cases and given themselves millions in compensation. It just does not make sense that all this is happening in the tenure of PPP. Meanwhile, the airline itself has gone from bad to worse. From its past years of glory of Great People to Fly With, it has now become an airline infested with rats. The most recent incident occurred on Pk-792 coming from Birmingham to Islamabad when rats hounded many passengers boarding that flight. -NAZEER ABRO, Hyderabad, via e-mail, July 21.