EDITORIAL: Opposition parties in Parliament bayed for the resignation of Civil Aviation Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan on Thursday after the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) Director General Hassan Nasir Jamy appeared to contradict the speech Khan made in the National Assembly in the wake of PIA plane crash declaring that 40 percent of the pilots possessed fake/dubious licences. Responding in a letter to his Omani counterpart's concerns about the validity of some pilots' licenses, the CAA chief offered him the assurance that the federal government immediately took notice of the issue and embarked upon the process of verifying the credentials of all licensed pilots through "forensic scrutiny". And that all commercial/airline transport pilots licenses (CPL/ATPL) it issued "are genuine and validly issued". However, he tried to lay the blame for the scandal at the door of the media, as he added "the matter has been misconstrued and incorrectly highlighted in the media/social media."

The mainstream media reported only what was going on. The minister had made the statement in the National Assembly. The Prime Minister later endorsed his stance, also on the floor of the house, saying he did not want to have blood (of unsuspecting passengers) on his hands. Indeed, the safety concern must be a priority consideration at all times. The government, nonetheless, could have avoided the ensuing fiasco had it properly established the facts and carefully weighed implications of what was to be said. The reaction from the relevant international quarters to the 'fake licenses' speech was swift and strong. The European Union Air Safety Agency suspended the national flag carrier's authorization to operate for six months in EU countries, citing safety concerns. The UAE, UK and US followed suit. Several other countries also grounded Pakistani pilots flying their commercial planes. The government has since been trying to control the damage, succeeding so far in the restoration of PIA's operations in the UAE and reinstatement of pilots in some other countries.

Meanwhile, confusion persists about the actual situation. Countering the opposition's criticism, Sarwar Khan stuck to his guns, though claiming that in his speech he had declared the pilots' licenses as "dubious" and not "fake". Earlier, he had also stated that several pilots had paid someone else to sit for their exam. The CAA chief seemed to be quibbling over semantics as having skirted around the issue of 'dubious' licenses he explained in his letter that during the process of verifying the pilots credentials "it occurred that there were discrepancies pertaining to the computer-based examination ... Immediately upon completion of the process, the pilots falling in this category were treated as 'suspects' till clearance. They were taken off from flying duties, if any, and grounded pending formal process." The minister, however, refused to give ground. Said he, it might look as damaging for the country in the short term, but for the future it was important to show the world through actions that "we are improving our systems". The assertion -in fact the entire handling of the issue - highlights the mismanagement of the past, in line with the ruling PTI's compulsive proclivity to point the finger at previous governments for anything and everything that smacks of mismanagement or corruption, regardless of the consequences.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020