The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Saturday issued notices to secretary aviation division, DG Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), advisor to prime minister on aviation and chairman Privatisation Commission in connection with a petition challenging privatisation of three international airports of Pakistan. Justice Aamer Farooq issued notices to the respondents for April 6 after the Collective Bargaining Agent (CBA) for CAA and some other employees of CAA challenged the process.
The petitioners through their counsel Hafiz Arfat Ahmad approached the high court after the CAA invited applications/proposals from international companies to privatise three international airports of Pakistan - New Islamabad International Airport, Allama Iqbal International Airport, Lahore and Jinnah International Airport, Karachi, on February 7.
As per advertisement, the companies desirous of participating in the process shall be responsible for operation, management development works and some other functions.
The counsel said the company would control airport operation and management, administration and maintenance of airport buildings, allied infrastructure, equipment, systems and other facilities, ground handling services and future expansions of airport infrastructure including runways, taxiways, car parks etc. He said the news regarding privatisation of three major airports has created a serious sense of insecurity among thousands of employees. All of them were surprised that as to why major components of a profit yielding organisation of government are being privatised, he said, adding the financial performance report of CAA of 2015-2016 reflects that the CAA earned more than 50 billion rupees during the period.
He argued that Section 6 of the CAA Ordinance unambiguously states that CAA shall have control over all the civil airports of the country. He added that when the legislative provision itself contemplates that the control of civil airports is to remain with CAA then it (CAA) could not have issued the impugned advertisement seeking applications/proposals from companies.
CAA, however, has decided to accommodate some influential group, he alleged, adding that the decision to privatise three airports has not been taken by the CAA management rather the managements has been directed to initiate such process. Ahmad further argued that the sovereign rights on air can only be ensured when the administrative and operational control of the airports is retained by the State instrumentality and by entrusting the same to a private corporate entity will seriously jeopardise things.
The subject of privatisation of any state-owned enterprise basically falls within the purview of Privatisation Commission of Pakistan., but the process of privatisation initiated by the CAA itself is legally not permitted, he said. In the petition, he maintained, aviation is a highly sensitive activity which is directly linked to the safety and security of Pakistan. Through the impugned advertisement, he said, the CAA has quite surprisingly decided to entrust its core function to a private entity.
Considering the importance and sensitivity of aviation specifically in war times, the proposed entrustment of control of three major airports of the country is definitely going to give a serious blow to the security of Pakistan. The consequence of privatisation of three major airports of the country would be that hundreds of CAA employees would be rendered surplus and finally this will lead to the end of their jobs, he said. "CAA has created a serious sense of insecurity among the employees of CAA."
Besides making a sizeable contribution to the public exchequer, CAA is a source of livelihood for more than 10,000 employees. He has prayed the court to declare the advertisement and actions taken pursuant to it illegal.
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