There are a plethora of issues which plague Pakistan CAA and airlines regulated by it, especially PIA. They are run by mediocrity, nepotism, political and bureaucratic interference, incompetence, allegations of financial and administrative indiscipline, and many other issues that contribute to their decline. 

The current damage has been done, and the least the government could do is to utilize this opportunity to cleanse the rot within. The issues of the lack of authenticity of licences issued by regulators have been there for decades. CAA and those at the helm are more to blame than pilots involved in irregularities. After all, if CAA officials had performed their regulatory role as per ICAO rules, there would have been no issue of fraudulence in licences issued by them.

As for PIA, irregularities in recruitment started in 1995 and continued between 2008 to 2014. Why has PIA not terminated all such employees who submitted fake degrees at the time of their initial induction? Vacancies were created in an already surplus organization by the successive CEO/MD to benefit their next of kin or those related to the political elite and retired officers from services. PIA was forced to establish Flying Academies so that their children could complete flight training requirements for CPL at the cost of the airline. In one instance an MD got his three sons inducted as pilots. The irony is PIA has been used as a platform to get them Aircraft Type Ratings, but they then abandon it to join foreign airlines.

G. ZAMAN,

Peshawar.