LAHORE - Sindh High Court has reinstated PIA Director Marketing Khuram Mushtaq on the same day when he was suspended by PIA Chairman, said sources in the national flag carrier.
The court in its judgment said, “The suspension made against the plaintiff (Maj. Khuram) is suspended and Anjum Ameen Mirza is restrained from working as Director Marketing”.
It is worth mentioning here that Chairman PIA had suspended Khuram from the office of Director Marketing on Monday and directed Anjum Ameen Mirza to work against the vacant post. Earlier Chairman PIA, appointed Anjum as president, Accountability Committee (a position which was not mentioned in Human Resource Budget HRB). It was an assignment to tighten the screw on the officers who were not obeying the unlawful verbal orders of the Chairman, said a senior officer of PIA on condition of not to be named.
Muhammad Ali Gardezi, Federal Secretary Aviation & Acting Chairman-PIA is also serving as Chairman of Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority, and PIA Investment Limited/ Subsidiaries. With no experience of Aviation particularly Airline, he is managing the soaring Pakistan International Airlines, Civil Aviation Authority, Airport Security Force and other aviation matters.
Ever since his appointment he has managed to bypass transparency in lucrative deals of national airline which is already bleeding and is at the verge of collapse. A contract has been signed with M/S TWA for purchase of aircraft spare parts on Chairman’s instruction. Heavy payments are made to M/S TWA for gaining personal benefits. These payments are prioritised through Finance Department for settlement over the other payments.
PIA has presently attained four Wet Leased aircraft from M/S Travel Services Int. for two months as an interim arrangement till PIA’s own grounded fleet is operational on the instructions of Chairman. The agreement has now been extended further to gain more benefits without taking required action to make PIA grounded fleet operational. It is learnt from reliable sources that this arrangement involves huge kick-backs.
Letter of Intent (LOI) for additional aircraft on dry lease are being acquired from American based Company, GECAS through a subsidiary in Middle East as American Corrupt practice Laws are very stringent. Although, the feasibility was not favourable for PIA compared to other available options yet it was given to GECAS to attain huge lucrative kickbacks.
The Chairman is pursuing a fresh agreement with M/S Aviation Plus owned by Akbar Khan in Brussels for allocation of bulk cargo belly space transportation from Europe, United Kingdom and USA on very low rates to gain lucrative kickbacks.
The present agreement with Teradata for Call Center services is expiring and tender process was initiated as per PPRA requirements which was cancelled on direct intervention of Chairman and PIA management was asked to reinitiate a fresh tender on flexible terms to qualify another party against kickbacks.
One of the brothers of Gardezi is dealing in Real Estate business and he has initiated a process to evaluate and sell PIA prime properties world over including Pakistan which is worth billions with a pretext to attain cash flow for operational purpose.
It is pertinent to mention after his appointment in the Aviation Division, he has appointed his well-known cronies as front men who are pressurising PIA officials to sign shady deals; Toor as Additional Secretary, Iftikhar Mir as Joint Secretary and Farooq as Deputy Secretary.