The Islamabad High Court (IHC) Monday expressed annoyance at the failure of Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to submit probe report about Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) plane crash near Havelian in 2016. A single bench of IHC comprising Justice Aamer Farooq heard the petition filed by the mother of Mansoor Janjua, co-pilot of the ill-fated flight, seeking a judicial probe into the incident and expressed its displeasure over failure of the CAA in submission of the report.
PIA flight PK-661 crashed near Havelian in 2016 killing 48 individuals, including celebrity Junaid Jamshed and Chitral deputy commissioner Osama Warraich.
According to the petitioner's lawyer, the PIA flight crashed en route to Islamabad from Chitral on December 7, 2016, but no commission was formed to determine the cause of the incident.
During the hearing, Justice Aamer asked from CAA if an investigation was conducted and what it revealed. In response to it, the CAA's legal representative informed the court that while a probe over the matter was indeed conducted, its report has not yet been published. He explained that the relevant authority has to approve the report before publishing it.
At this, Justice Aamer remarked if he should wait until his retirement then he will present the report. He remarked while expressing displeasure over non-submission of the report, "Unfortunately, no one cares about precious lives in Pakistan." He added that two years have elapsed since the incident but its causes have still not been revealed.
He expressed his annoyance over inefficiency of the inquiry committee for not reaching a conclusion about the incident that occurred two years ago.
Then, the CAA's counsel requested the court to give the Authority time to submit its report. The IHC judge remarked that the government should have directed relevant authorities to conduct investigations into the issue.
Justice Farooq censured the government for not issuing directives for a swift investigation into the incident. "There is a tradition of hiding everything in the country," he remarked. Later, the IHC bench deferred the hearing until February 7.
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