KARACHI: Sindh High Court (SHC) Thursday issued a fresh notice to Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) after its failure to submit a reply in relation to Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) plane crash case.

SHC ordered CAA's concerned officials to appear in the next hearing to explain their position as to non-compliance of its directives for submission of a reply in the case.

Justice Omar Sial stated that neither did any CAA official show up in the court nor was any written reply submitted despite the court's orders.

The court inquired about the counsel for PIA in the case, who didn't show up at the hearing junior counsel informed the court that the principal counsel has been infected by Covid-19.

However, Justice Sial asked whether the main counsel has been keeping the investigation report only with himself. "When court ordered that investigation report should be submitted to it, then why the orders were not complied with," Justice Sial asked.

Meanwhile, amicus curiae Abdul Haseeb Jamali informed the court that Federal Aviation Minister put the entire blame for the PK-8303 crash on the pilot of the plane and said that it is CAA that issues licences to pilots.

He said that pilots go for training only after the permission of CAA and questioned why fake degrees were not detected at that time.

He also told the court that investigation report regarding the four-year-old ATR crash hasn't been submitted with the court so far.

Petitioner Iqbal Kazmi filed a petition for transparent investigation into the PIA plane crash and sought to bring to justice those responsible for this tragic incident. The court put off the hearing of the case for third week of next month.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020