Raza Rabbani sees clash of interests in plane crash probe

ISLAMABAD: Senate former chairman Raza Rabbani Wednesday said that there was a conflict of interest in the Commission of Inquiry into the recent plane crash in Karachi, as the opposition feared the late pilot was to be made the scapegoat.

However, Minister for Aviation Ghulam Sarwar Khan emphatically declared the commission would hold free, fair and transparent inquiry and the report would be shared with both chambers of Parliament and action would be taken accordingly.

He noted that previously, no probe report was made public while a total of 12 major air crashes had happened and five of them in recent few years. He said to have sought explanation from CAA for writing a letter, blaming the pilot for the disaster, having no right to express its opinion. He also defended the PIA CEO, whom had trusted tremendously and enjoyed credibility. He vowed to revive PIA’s gory of 1960s and 70s.

Speaking on a calling attention notice on the matter, jointly filed by him and PPP parliamentary leader in the House Sherry Rehman, Senator Rabbani contended that most of the people in the commission belonged to the Pakistan Air Force (PAF), with no related experience and having nothing to do with commercial flights.

He also pointed out that the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) was represented, which controlled the air traffic but not a pilot, who flies a commercial aircraft, had been included in the inquiry commission.

Senator Rabbani said that the Civil Aviation Authority had written a letter to PIA stating that the pilot had received instructions from air traffic but he did not comply with those. He argued that hence the CAA, before the report of the Commission of Inquiry, had announced its decision and hence superseded it.

He also emphasised that inquiry should be carried out as to what was the situation of PIA since the arrival of the present Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Air Marshal Arshad Malik, for whom a tailor-made ad was floated and it was shared in the Senate as well.

Rabbani continued that the qualification of war course was made part of it, whereas the Sindh High Court had put his appointment aside but later the Supreme Court restored him on his job. “Since the new chief executive officer has joined PIA, a kind of martial law has been imposed and just a few days before the plane crash, the Essential Services Act was imposed, which was needless, as the employees were already working amid the coronavirus and none had declined to work,” he noted.

He said the employees now faced job security in the airlines while the management had shown its enmity towards them. Rabbani said that while briefing Prime Minister Imran Khan, the CEO of PIA said that the biggest problem of the organisation was its 14,000 employees and this was on the pattern of the Pakistan Steel Mills, saying the decision on the mills was unconstitutional, as the CCI was its constitutional forum.

“The vested interests are furthering their agenda under the cover of corona and will be doing retrenchment in the airlines. The CEO also maintained that pending cases against the management filed by the workers for their fundamental rights are the main hurdle in the way of reforms in PIA,” he said.

The CEO, he noted, informed the prime minister about the PIA’s assets in Pakistan and abroad worth trillions and these would be sold for peanuts… where lies the booty.

Speaking on the notice, Senator Sherry Rehman said that there needed to be an impartial and independent inquiry, which satisfied everyone. She noted, “Right after the crash, PIA CEO made a speech and blamed the pilot. The CEO should not have blamed or found pilot error before an investigation. How the CEO announced pilot error even before any investigation had begun. It is clear that the aircraft company, CAA and PIA all want to blame the pilot, who is not even here to defend himself”.

She pointed out that there were serious reservations about the committee constituted by the federal government to investigate the PK8303 plane crash incident. How can the committee be under CAA’s authority, as CAA is under investigation itself? This is a total conflict of interest and the Committee and the inquiry seem suspicious now”.

About the ‘plight of pilots and staff’, she said, “pilots are being made to fly without adequate safety protocols and mandatory rest. When they protest they are given show cause notices. They are working in these extreme conditions to help us and yet no SOPs are being followed.”

Basic rights of PIA employees, she continued, had been suspended by enforcing the Essential Services Act under the guise of the pandemic. The pilots and crewmembers are risking their lives to operate during the COVID-19 pandemic and are at the risk of getting infected due to the negligence of PIA and CAA.

She said that tough questions must be answered now. How many flights was the pilot of the ill-fated crash made to fly? How many hours of rest was he given?

Leader of Opposition Raja Muhammad Zafarul Haq said as control tower staffer was arrested for questioning and issued a statement that the pilot did not listen to him. “If the pilot is at fault, he cannot come and say that the mistake was not made by me. If the company is at fault, it has to pay a lot of compensation. So from day one, the accident was turned into a pilot's fault,” he noted.

He said that the e-blogger from the United States made baseless allegations against ex-prime minister Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto and ministers, which was aired by the media and turned in a way that everyone would feel embarrassed. In the same way, the plane crash was also being turned around.

“On the one hand, there is the pilot who can't defend himself. The late pilot has been abused and blamed, which is inappropriate,” he said.

Meanwhile, the burning issue of rising prices of sugar, flour and non-availability of petrol echoed in the Senate.

The House was informed that 20-kg bag of flour, which was being sold at Rs. 800 was now available at Rs. 1100 with an increase of Rs. 300, making it so difficult for the common man to afford two-time bread for his family.

JI Senator Mushtaq Ahmed claimed that petrol was missing from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and even from the native area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Mahmood Khan, Swat ever since, its price was revised downward.

“Whose job is to ensure smooth supply of essential items while Prime Minister says he has made petrol the cheapest in the sub-continent, it has gone missing. Already, flour, wheat and sugar mafias are active,” Mushtaq Ahmad said.

MQM Senator Mian Ateeq Sheikh said that after Prime Minister had taken notice of non-availability of petrol, according to some TC channels, its supply was being restored, saying it was perhaps a plot against the PTI government.

He claimed that flour mills were minting massive profits for the last several months and now again, panic was being created about this must kitchen commodity. He added even flour mills enjoyed liberty of reducing bag weight from 20 kg to 18 kg on their own, urging the government ti balance this.

PTI Senator Waleed Iqbal raised the blood-curdling issue of torturing eight-year-old servant girl Zahra Shah for setting birds in a cage free and in return faced wrath of her masters (the couple) who then allegedly brutally killed her.

He wanted full stop to such incidents, which occurred so frequently in the society. Senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar of PPP said that his House standing committee on human rights had planned to take up this matter in its meeting on June 18.

Senators from Balochistan wanted end to ban on internet services in 60-70 per cent of their province and said it was also necessary to enable school, college and university students to benefit from HEC’s virtual classes programme amid the coronavirus.

“Our effort is to improve working of the MCI. And, I assure you no undemocratic or illegal or forceful way will be adopted against anyone,” said Leader of the House Dr. Shahzad Waseem in response to a point of public importance raised by PML0N Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed, who raised the issue of MCI Mayor Sh Anser Aziz.