The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) carried out the annual airport emergency exercise 2008 at Jinnah International Airport here on Thursday. The exercise, which was supposed to be started at 9am, but was delayed for three hours, causing inconvenience for the spectators, besides raising several questions regarding CAA performance in real emergency.
The paramedical staff of Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), who came to participate in the exercise, had earlier boycotted it in protest against CAA mismanagement.
When asked, Sajid Habib, Deputy Director, CAA, alleged Pakistan International Airline (PIA), saying that, "authority takes plane from PIA for its annual exercise but PIA was late in providing plane in this regard, causing long delay to commence the exercise." He further said that the exercise was aimed to monitor the performance of its staff and hoped that it would play a vital role in enhancing their efficiency during any emergency.