Opposition stages walkout against PIA's 'callousness'

The joint opposition in the Senate Friday staged a walkout in protest against the 'callousness' of Pakistan International Airlines after it was revealed that PIA officials are concealing information from the Parliament about recent plane crash near Havelian.
The enraged lawmakers stormed out of the House after Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani reprimanded the government after not finding a single minister to respond to a calling attention notice filed by Senators Samina Abid of PTI and Sehar Kamran of PPP, to draw the attention of minister in-charge Aviation Division towards recent crash of PIA ATR plane that killed 48 people.
The moment Senator Samina stood up to read out the calling attention notice, the chairman Senate stopped her and asked Leader of the House in Senate Raja Zafarul Haq why no minister is present to respond to this very important issue wherein 48 people lost their lives. Haq said that he had been trying to contact the relevant minister as well as PIA officials but no one could be reached out despite repeated attempts, which angered Rabbani who referred the matter to Senate Standing Committee on Rules of Procedure & Privileges.
Declaring the non-co-operation by Aviation Division and PIA as breach of the Parliament, he directed the Senate Secretariat to issue notices to secretary aviation and director operations of PIA to appear before the committee. "The joint secretary aviation is avoiding providing details about the plane crash to Senate [and] not a single minister from such a big cabinet [of Sharif administration] bothered to come to the House to speak on the issue," he lamented.
He continued that the PIA is busy slaughtering black goats but no one is ready to brief the Parliament, adding the PIA has become habitual of sweeping things under the carpet despite loss of 48 lives. The chairman Senate also made it crystal clear to PIA management that it can not escape responsibility, as mere resignation of its managing director, who quit in wake of the incident, is not enough.
"The MD PIA just resigned and it doesn't mean that he's been absolved from his responsibility...issue notices to secretary aviation and director operations PIA to appear before the committee as this is a breach of privilege," he added. Senator Samina blamed the PIA for the plane crash, saying it was sheer negligence of the PIA management as it allowed the unfortunate ATR aircraft to take off with a faulty engine, which was accepted by secretary aviation who later denied it.
She said that instead of improving its performance, PIA is busy offering 'sadqa' (a form of charity with special intention and for special purpose) of goats to seek divine intervention which reflects what sort of people have been made in-charge of national flag carrier which has lost its credibility. The opposition senators refused to come back to House despite assurance by PML-N Parliamentary Leader in Senate Mushahidullah Khan who went out to bring them back on the orders of the Senate chairman.
Chairman Senate Raza Rabbani reserved his ruling on the legal aspect of the recent notification by the government to bring five regulatory bodies under the line ministers. The issues pertaining to bypassing of CCI which, according to the Senate chairman, is mandatory, and use of administrative powers by the prime minister, were referred to Senate Standing Committee on Devolution.
Minister for Law and Justice Zahid Hamid said that nothing new has been done as it is the prerogative of the chief executive to transfer any regulatory body from ministry to another, as it had been done on numerous occasions in the past. However, the minister failed to give any substantive reply when the chairman Senate asked him whether it ever happened after the promulgation of 18th Constitutional Amendment.
The minister insisted that the transfer was made in accordance with rules and regulations, adding that the decision would not curtail the administrative and financial powers of these institutions. "The independence and autonomy of these regulatory will remain intact...the line ministers used to give their input to these regulator bodies as the role Cabinet Division was no more than a post office," he added.