Defence Secretary Tariq Waseem Ghazi has admitted that Pakistan International Airline (PIA) is in the worst financial crunch but claimed the government will do everything to save the national flag carrier from an untimely crash that seems imminent at the moment.
"Yes, the PIA's financial woes are getting deeper and deeper with every passing day...but untiring efforts at the highest level are underway to avert the crisis," Ghazi told the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) here on Wednesday.
"The president and the prime minister are taking personal interests in steering the national flag carrier out of the crisis and due to such high level efforts there is a ray of hope that the we will be able to streamline things soon," the secretary said.
PIA Chairman Tariq Kirmani rejected as baseless and mala fide a media report suggesting the corporation's accumulative losses would surge to Rs500 million to Rs1.5 billion a month if corrective measures were not taken from here onward.
The PAC meeting presided over by MNA Malik Allah Yar Khan took strong exception to the irregularities in the PIA and called for taking steps to control what it called unbridled corruption in the corporation.
The meeting was held to review the Special Audit Report for fiscal year 2000-01 on the performance of the Defence Ministry and its affiliated departments.
The defence secretary told the meeting that different measures were being taken to pull PIA out of the crisis. However, he said that the problems in the corporation were of serious nature.
Ghazi said President General Pervez Musharraf had stepped in to save PIA and he was being briefed on the affairs regularly. Similarly, he added, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and Finance and Defence Ministries were also being kept informed about the situation.
Some heat was generated during the meeting when a member and the PIA chairman exchanged harsh words and gestures over how much salary Kirmani was drawing.
MNA Qamaruz Zaman Kaira claimed that according to his information Kirmani was drawing more than a million rupees as salary and other privileges and the chairman had already drawn his salary for three years in advance.
"You just keep quit...you are before the PAC where one is required to speak through the principal accounts officer," Kaira snubbed Kirmani when he moved to defend himself.
This controversy got over when the defence secretary promised to present before the committee documentary proof of what Kirmani was getting from PIA in total. The committee also expressed concern over the Civil Aviation Authority (CIA) inability to complete an inquiry report into the Multan Fokker crash.
Discussing an audit objection regarding the Survey of Pakistan involving a Rs4 million theft from a safe of money meant for the employees' House Building Fund, the committee ordered the recovery from the responsible officials and disciplinary action against them.
Malik Allah Yar Khan directed Deputy Surveyor General Syed Haider Mehdi Jamal to also take action against the officials who had not taken action when the case was reported. "You should also streamline your system so that this practice is stopped permanently. It seems that you are wasting time and money in this department," the PAC chief said.
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