There are thousands of Pakistani expatriates working in Malaysia eager to travel to convenient locations in Punjab and KPK where majority belongs to. Those doing white collar jobs or even skilled workers get limited holidays ranging from 14 days to 20 days in a year and would like to reach their destinations quickly to spend quality time with family members rather than waste it in transit.

Loyal and patriotic Pakistani expatriates preferred to travel by national airline PIA on direct flights from Kuala Lumpur to Lahore and Peshawar. Unfortunately PIA to our shock, totally oblivious to needs of travelling public and in violation of laws of supply and demand, have suspended these direct flights and instead now operate from KL to Karachi, which means that a 5 hour journey for a person wishing to go to Peshawar or Lahore would be converted to 12 hour ordeal or even more in case of delays etc.

Management of PIA seems to care two hoots about convenient of expatriate Pakistani passengers. Malindo Air has conveniently moved in offering four flights a week to Lahore. No wonder PIA is going in a loss and losing passengers. This seems more of a deliberate plan to surrender revenue passengers to another foreign airline, which means facilitating remittance of millions of dollars from Pakistan to foreign countries. PIA could have earned foreign exchange for Pakistan, if it plans client friendly schedules. This seems to be part of deliberate of plan to deprive Pakistan of much needed foreign exchange, similar to what Open Sky policy did by benefitting Gulf based airlines to carry millions of Pakistani expatriates to destinations in USA and Europe.

SALMAN M,

Malaysia, March 5.