PIA accord with Turkish Airlines: PIAE body to continue countrywide protest

The Joint Action Committee of PIA Employees (JACPIAE) on Wednesday announced to continue its countrywide protest till the removal of MD Aijaz Haroon. This was stated by President PALPA Captain Sohail Baloch on behalf of JACPIAE along with other union leaders in a crowded press conference held at the departure hall of the Jinnah International Airport here on Wednesday.
He said the protest of JACPIAE could only be called off, if the government would accept their demands. He also demanded to the government for immediate removal of current PIA MD and annulment of the PIA-Turkish Airlines agreement. Furthermore, he urged the government to conduct judicial inquiry against those persons involved in maltreating the elder and female employees of PIA while they were protesting against the management.
Captain Sohail expressed gratitude to the Prime Minister Gilani for his intervention. He said a three-member committee including Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar, Federal Minister for Labour, Manpower and Overseas Pakistanis Syed Khurshid Ahmed Shah and Information Minister Qamar-uz-Zaman Kaira would look into the matter. According to a statement of JACPIAE, the current MD PIA, Aijaz Haroon has failed to safeguard the interest of PIA and its employees alike. He has signed a "death-warrant" of the national flag carrier by agreeing to reduce the operations of PIA rather than expanding them and sold the profitable routes of PIA to the Turkish Airlines which would certainly curb the revenue collection by PIA remarkably.
The agreement will not only have very profound impact on the employment generation in PIA but the existing employments are at the stake. As the agreement forces PIA to reduce its operations, ultimately PIA is going to close its many stations and employees deployed there, will be laid off and we have heard that retrenchment has already been planned by the PIA management.