ISLAMABAD            -          the federal government has informed the supreme Court of Pakistan on tuesday that Rs114 billion have been provided to Pakistan international airlines Corporation Limited (PIACL) since 2018. a three-member bench of the apex court headed by Justice ijazul ahsan conducted hearing of the PIA plea, seeking permission for the recruitment of 250 skilful workers. The Pia has sought $40 million per year from the government. The PIA report, submitted last week, said: “Because of the Supreme Court’s ban on new recruitments since 2018, the PIA is facing an extreme shortage of professional and skilled employees in the areas of flight operations; services; information technology and finance.” During the proceedings, Additional attorney general (aag) Rashdeen nawaz Kasuri submitted the federation’s response to the PIA report, which said that since 2018, the government support to Pia was Rs114 billion. It questioned separation of 5,793 employees during 2018-2022 (retirement, resignation, voluntary separate scheme, early retirements and dismissal on discipline/ fake degrees). The AAG further said that the company was also required to demonstrate that the efforts were made within the organisational structure to transfer any person from another department to the required position. the reply said that the efforts should be made to save foreign currency as the company has sought $40 million per year from the government. It questioned that in how many countries PIA rented offices (in dollars)? it further questioned if Pia needed to keep expensive offices abroad when most air ticketing had gone web-based. The PIACL counsel sought time to file reply on the federation statement. the Pia report forecast that the international traffic would grow from 10.7 million passengers in 2022 to 19.1 million in 2026 (PIA market share = 27%) with major market expansion in Saudi Arabia, UAE, UK, Canada, US, Australia, Malaysia and Turkey. “Due to increase in domestic and international passenger traffic, additional pilots and cabin crew will be required, to manage the increased flight operations,” said the PIACL report.