ISLAMABAD: The Accountability Court on Thursday adjourned the hearing of “illegal” appointments in the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) against adviser on aviation and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Mehtab Ahmed Khan Abbasi and others without further proceedings due to absence of prosecutor.

The Accountability Court judge, Muhammad Bashir, while hearing the case pertaining to illegal appointment of former chief executive officer of the PIA Dr Musharraf Rasool Cyan adjourned it without any further proceedings due to absence of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) prosecutor, Sohail Arif.

The court adjourned hearing of the case till September 2.

The other accused of the case includes Muhammad Irfan Elahi, former secretary Civil Aviation, M Raheel Ahmed, chief HR officer, Musharraf Rasool Cyan, former chief executive officer (CEO) PIA, and Tariq Mehmood Pasha.

Former governor Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Mehtab Abbasi was appointed as aviation adviser to then prime minister Nawaz Sharif in 2017.

After a few months of Abbasi’s appointment, Dr Musharraf Rasool Cyan was appointed as CEO of PIA.

But a year later, the Supreme Court declared Dr Cyan’s appointment as illegal after hearing a case filed by the PIA Officers Association challenging his appointment.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020