PIA employees' unions and associations under the banner of Joint Action Committee (JACPIAE) have urged the Defence Minister to convince Air Chief Marshal Rao Qamar Suleman (Retd) to withdraw his resignation as the airline and its employees need him the most at this crucial point.
A statement after the committee's meeting held here on Wednesday said that with the appointment of Qamar Suleman, politics of nepotism within the management had ended but the same has restarted right after his decision to resign. Many aspirants have started lobbying for the post and the same shameful game of scratching each others' back has started once again.
Since none in the race is sincere to the airline, it has been decided by the Joint Action Committee to request him to withdraw his resignation so that the airline could benefit from his non-political and truly professional conduct. "The Joint Action Committee mentioned that the prudent policies pursued by the former Chairman in short span of time proved efficacy of his actions and today we have only six aircraft in hangers for usual check-ups as against 19 early this year due to lack of spares and an average of 10-12 for last two years," said Shokat Jamshed President, Society of Aircraft Engineers of Pakistan (SAEP).
The Joint Action Committee which represents employees from all cadre affiliated with different political parties had unanimously supported the government decision of appointment of Rao Qamar Suleman and requested the government not to accept his resignation.
The statement said with his resignation the corrupt committee of the past had been activated again looking for a chance to get access to the record of their corruption and destroy the same but the employees of the sensitive departments were holding on to those files to bring them to justice at the right time.
The committee said that for past three-four months the associations and unions had remained busy working side by side with Rao Qamar Suleman on fleet acquisition and Hajj operations and were not able to proceed on corruption cases against previous managements.
The restless efforts of past three months have brought results at least in the form of smooth Hajj operations bringing a sigh of relief for employees who were ashamed in front of Hajjis and Umrah pilgrims during the last three years due to inefficient managements who made mockery of these operations putting at great discomfort to the travellers to Holy land.
It was the efforts of employees of engineering department and prudent policies of Rao Qamar Suleman which made the airline proud today as when he took over, half of the fleet was on ground with no clue to spare parts and engines whereas today only six aircraft are in hangers for routine check-ups.
It is the leadership technique which brings employees on board with management as all employees working in the same direction could bring turnaround in the organisations. The statement said that managers, who failed to steer the airline when foreign carriers were improving their financial health etc, were now blaming different issues for humongous losses incurred during their managements. The childish reasons being given to justify the losses and jugglery of figures cannot deny their own statements given in front of Public Accounts Committee and members of media community whereby they declared the airline as "bankrupt" and admitted incurring a loss of Rs 200 crore because of mistakes committed in fuel hedging adventures.
The committee said the federal government has had enough and should not try appointing "friends" and incur further embarrassment especially in election years, but should continue finding upright professionals like Rao Qamar Suleman and General Javed (Chairman Steel Mills).
The statement further said that though learned the hard way but the lesson is clear enough that friends may be very good in need but professionals are needed to run public institutions, the experiments of appointment of two friends in PIA has increased the losses from around Rs 40 billion to over Rs 120 billion whereas the same period saw a huge decline in fuel prices which was not only adjusted in the fare readjustment but the same was never revised, resulting in operating profit as claimed by some recently.
After a long deliberation within the Joint Action Committee it was analysed that if things continue the way they are, the government might get trapped into some group's or individual's trap and appoint a person who will undo the achievements of last three-four months, therefore, the committee has demanded the withdrawal of the resignation of Rao Qamar Suleman.
The employees still have the signed copies of agreement with Turkish airlines in which PIA was to stop flying to Frankfurt, Paris, Milan, Chicago, and New York which today is being called enhancement of network. This jugglery didn't work in February 2011 and would not work in September 2012 too, the statement said.
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