Contempt notice issued to Defence, PAF officials

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Thursday issued notice to the secretary Ministry of Defence and base commander Pakistan Air Force in a contempt of court petition.

A division bench comprising Justice Ikramullah Khan and Justice Lal Jan Khattak issued the notice to Lt Gen (R) Zamirul Hassan Shah, secretary Ministry of Defence, and Imtiaz Sattar, base commander PAF Peshawar, asking them to explain why the petitioner company M/s Gerry’s Dnata (Pvt) Limited was forbidden to continue ground handling services at the Bacha Khan International Airport in Peshawar.

During hearing of the contempt petition, Ali Gohar Durrani, counsel for the company, informed the bench that despite court directives the PAF had stopped the movement of the company’s vehicles and personnel working at the airport.

He submitted that the company had been engaged in airport ground handling services of various airlines in Pakistan since 1993 and has offices in Peshawar, Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore, Faisalabad, Quetta and Multan airports. He said the company had good reputation both nationally and internationally.

He stated that the director general Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) had accorded approval for renewal of licence agreement to the petitioner company for services at the airport and the permission is effective from April 1, 2017 to March 31, 2022.

He said that recently the petitioner company had also signed a Standard Ground Handling Agreement with the Pakistan International Airlines.

The lawyer submitted that the said agreement for reasons of competitiveness finds itself at odds with Shaheen Airport Services Ltd (SAPS), which is a subsidiary of Pakistan Air Force, and they allegedly started harassing the petitioner company in one way or the other.

The petition said the petitioner company had earlier entered into an agreement with SAPS for the ground handling services at the airport for a period of two years which was extended for another year.

“But ironically the petitioner company was served with a one-day notice by SAPS whereby they terminated the ground handling despite the fact that under the international standards to which Pakistan is a signatory, a minimum of 60-day notice has to be served for violation if any,” the petition claimed.

It also claimed that the SAPS influenced the CAA across the country at all airports by seeking the stoppage of the work of the petitioner company for the sole reason of getting the company out of competition without lawful authority.

COMPANY ALSO SERVED NOTICE: The court also issued a notice to the petitioner company in an application of the PAF Peshawar base, seeking to recall the high court’s earlier order about suspending the PAF directions to the company to restrict its movement in the airport.

The counsel for the PAF, Aamir Javed, submitted before the court that the movement of the petitioner company was restricted due to security concerns as the company’s vehicles and staff even moved into restricted areas, including reaching the runway used for PAF jet fighters in the Zarb-e-Azb Operation.

Syed Asif Jalal appeared for CAA in the case and requested the court to dismiss the case as the writ petition was not maintainable. The court fixed August 16 for the next hearing in the case.