KARACHI: Pakistan International Airline (PIA) has evacuated 1460 passengers mostly 'foreign nationals' from Kabul under its humanitarian mission after Taliban's takeover, showing its professionalism to the world during a crisis situation.
The national flag carrier, which has been facing severe criticism over its mismanagement, nepotism, political appointments, corruption, fake pilots' licenses, etc., for decades, is now receiving praises from the international community for conducting formidable humanitarian mission after the fall of Kabul and rescued 1460 passengers, mostly foreign nationals including diplomats and others.
The European Union (EU), which had imposed a ban on PIA for its flight operations in Europe, also acknowledged the professionalism showed by the national flag carrier during an ongoing crisis situation in Kabul and requested the airline to airlift 420 employees of the EU delegation in Kabul and their dependents on humanitarian grounds. However, the EU request could not be materialized due to hold on PIA flight operations following the ground issues.
Similarly, IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva in her tweet also praised the efforts of Pakistan and thanked for successfully evacuating IMF staff and their families from Afghanistan.
"Pakistan's efforts at the highest levels were absolutely critical to the safe and swift evacuation of IMG staff and their families from Afghanistan. My heartfelt thanks to Prime Minister Imran Khan for Pakistan's exceptional assistance in very difficult circumstances," she tweeted.
Since August 14, 2021, when the Taliban took over Kabul, the PIA has operated seven flights for Kabul and uplifted 1460 passengers mostly 'foreign nationals' under its humanitarian mission. One of its flights, PK250, was also stuck for hours at Kabul airport with 170 passengers due to American diplomats evacuation by the US military personnel.
Later, the heroism of the PIA pilot captain Maqsood Bajrani has become a sensational story as he flew a flight from Kabul Airport with 170 passengers without Air Traffic Control (ATC) assistance when he was told by ATC to take his own decision either stay or leave during adverse the security situation at Kabul airport.
On August 20, 2021, CEO PIA, Air Marshal Arshad Malik also travelled to Kabul to analyze the situation on the ground and motivated the PIA crew who were at the forefront in national service through a humanitarian mission. The airline has so far evacuated personnel from a number of foreign missions, Agha Khan Foundation, World Bank, IMF, and others.
This was not the first time when the national flag carrier has shown its character to the world. During April 2020 to July 2021 when the world was facing the first wave of covid-19 pandemic and almost every airline shut its flight operations, the PIA was one of the few airlines, which initiated its repatriation operations on humanitarian ground.
During the aforesaid period, the airline had operated over 2100 flights and transported over 0.34 million passengers to UK, UAE, KSA, and other countries.
Talking to Business Recorder, PIA spokesman confirmed that the airline held its flight operations to Kabul due to ground issues, saying that PIA was continuously in contact with Afghan Civil Aviation Authority to restore these services but there were serious challenges in getting people back to work.
He said that the airline had planned to conduct these fights purely on humanitarian considerations, for creating a softer image of the country, adding the Prime Minister of Pakistan and the Information Ministry termed PIA's operations as Pakistan's commendable evacuation mission efforts to help the international community in getting their citizens out safely and comfortably from Afghanistan.
Furthermore, he said that PIA was also receiving citations from international institutions that are appreciating PIA's efforts. The President of World Bank, and the Head of European Union Mission in Pakistan have already sent their accolades.
PIA spokesman said that the airline had also received requests from Asian Development Bank, European Union, Reuters and Associated Press to evacuate their personnel from Kabul on PIA flights.
Therefore, PIA is now planning more flights to Kabul to evacuate these people from Afghanistan, fully assisted by Pakistan's embassy in Kabul that act as a staging point for all the people intending to take these flights and then escorting them to the airport seeking permissions from all concerned, he said.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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