Senate Standing Committee on Defence has directed the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to make public the report of the Multan air crash within one week.
The committee presided over by Senator Nisar Memon also asked the CAA to submit another report on the basic facilities missing at the country's major airports including Karachi, Islamabad, Lahore, Peshawar and Quetta.
The committee was of the view that the CAA had failed to provide facilities to passengers at airports despite levying heavy taxes. It also observed that the authority lacked skilled engineering staff and inspectors.
The CAA was also ordered to hold investigations into the procedure through which a license was awarded to Pakistan Airways for flying pilgrims to Saudi Arabia. The Senate body expressed its concerns over the striking similarities between the names of Pakistan Airways and Pakistan International Airlines (PIA).
Moreover, the committee was informed that Quetta Airport was sealed off twice recently for an "uninterrupted and peaceful" arrival of two high military officials in a blunt violation of rules.
The committee directed the CAA to apprise it in written as to why the airport was sealed off after an official of the Finance Ministry, and said there were no rules that allowed such practices. The rules allowed only security in a certain area of the airport for VVIPs.
Senator Kamran Murtaza said he had himself witnessed the military sealing off Quetta Airport twice on December 5, when Vice Chief of Army Staff General Ahsan Saleem Hayat and Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee General Ehsanul Haq visited the city. For hours, he said, flights were delayed and passengers suffered.
"We must keep in mind that Quetta is not an occupied territory, but a part of Pakistan and its people should be respected equally," Murtaza said.
PIA Chairman Tariq Kirmani admitted that the airline had suffered Rs nine billion losses during last nine months. He also accepted that his Chief Financial Officer Zafar Usmani - an ex-official of Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) - was drawing Rs 850, 000 per month salary that was more than his own remuneration.
The PIA chairman said that he was paying high salaries to consultants due to unavailability of experienced people in the market, adding the PIA finance department was inefficient and did not update him on important figure that's why he had to appoint consultants on lucrative salaries to improve the situation.
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