LAHORE - PIA ended its Ramadan Special Umra operation on September 17, this month without bringing back good number of passengers who had been left stranded at Jeddah at the mercy of Jeddah police as their Umra visas had expired, sources in the airline revealed on Wednesday. They said that flights of other airlines carrying Umra passengers operated according to schedule or with minimum delays. It was lack of co-ordination, technical defects and mismanagement which led to a chain reaction in PIA. Now PIA is bringing back the Umra passengers by its regular scheduled flights, which have limited passenger seats available. Umra Passengers physically exhausted with no cash reserves were left stranded at the mercy of police and God Almighty, although PIA charged the highest fare per passenger seat from them. There has been total collapse of PIA system resulting in long delays with no information to the passengers of the extent of delays. The flights for passengers returning from Umra started from the 28th Ramadan. PIA has been operating Umra and Hajj flights for the past 50 years and is well aware that these passengers are issued time limited visas and the obligation is on the airline that books to take them to Jeddah and bring them back on schedule or special extra section flights within the stipulated time period for which visas have been issued. These Umra and Hajj passengers are charged a premium high fare on the grounds that they are transported on special extra section flights, where the aircraft has to return empty. There was also no co-ordination between PIAs Flight Despatch Central Control and Jeddah Air Traffic Control. This co-ordination was the duty of PIA Flight Despatch, which had been disbanded even at key hubs like Jeddah, Manchestor, Lahore, Peshawar, New York, Bankok etc due to the reasons best known to the current management. Sources further disclosed that these Flight Dispatchers holding valid CAA Licenses had been adjusted in traffic and special handling, which means that there were no savings in salary. Major airlines in the world like Emirates, Etihad, Singapore, Continental, United Air, British Air, Air France etc all have Flight Despatch section for proper co-ordination to take care of all eventualities. When contacted PIA spokesman said that PIA had completed its Umra operation and those stranded yet in Jeddah had gone to Saudi Arabia through scheduled flights and would come back when they wanted. He said that only 30 to 40 Umra pilgrims had missed their flights after Umra and had got their visa expired. These were facilitated by PIA by accommodating them in hotels and PIA offices. He said that no Umra passenger was stranded in Jedda now.