Senate passes air carriage bill

The Senate on Friday approved 'The Carriage by Air Bill, 2011' unanimously under which a carrier is liable to compensate Rs 5 million to a passenger in case of death due to destruction of or damage to an airplane. The liability of compensation shall be inferable for the benefits of such of the members of the passenger's family, including wife or husband, parent, step-parent, grandparent, brother, sister, half-brother, half-sister, child, stepchild and grandchild as sustained damage by reason of his/her death.
The payment made by the carrier in accordance with the certificate shall give him full and final discharge from his liability. The Bill was moved by Defence Minister Ahmed Mukhtar. The House passed the Bill unanimously, with two amendments proposed by Wasim Sajjad and Khurshid Ahmed. According to amendments proposed by Wasim Sajjad, in the fifth schedule of the Bill in sub-rule (1) and (2), the liability of compensation in case of death of passenger was increased from one million to five million rupees.
An amendment proposed by Khurshid Ahmed was made proviso of Clause-4 of the Bill. According to amendment, "(6) provision of Carriage by Air Conventions shall not apply to international carriage by air performed and operated directly by the Islamic Republic of Pakistan for non-commercial purposes in respect to its functions and duties as a sovereign state and to the carriage of persons, cargo and baggage for the military authorities on aircraft registered in or leased by the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the whole capacity of which has been reserved by or on behalf of such authorities."
The Bill says that the carrier is liable for damage sustained in case of destruction or loss of, or of damage to, checked baggage upon condition only that the event which caused the destruction, loss or damage took place on board the aircraft or during any period within which the checked baggage was in the charge of the carrier. However, the carrier is not liable if and to the extent that the damage resulted from the inherent defect, quality or vice of the baggage. In case of unchecked baggage, including personal items, the carrier is liable if the damage resulted from its fault or that of its servants or agents.
The Bill further says that if the carrier admits the loss of the checked baggage, or if the checked baggage has not arrived at the expiration of twenty-one days after date on which it ought to have arrived, the passenger is entitled to enforce against the carrier the rights which flow from the contract of carriage. It was also described in the Bill that the period of the carriage by air does not extend to any carriage by land, by sea or by inland waterway performed outside an airport. If, however, such carriage takes place in the performance of a contract for carriage by air, for the purpose of loading, delivery or transshipment, any damage is presumed, subject to proof to the contrary, to have been the result of an event which took place during the carriage by air.
Objective of the Bill is to give effect in Pakistan to Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules for International Carriage by Air 1999, and to consolidate the laws and applicable conventions in relation to international carriage by air as well as the law applicable to domestic carriage by air.