PIA CEO apprises PM Imran on plane crash probe

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan International Airlines Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Arshad Malik on Monday apprised Prime Minister Imran Khan on progress regarding the PIA plane crash investigation during a meeting on the reforms and restructuring of the national airline.

According to a press release issued by the PM Office's media wing, Malik also informed PM Imran about the process of handing over the bodies to the families and payment of a compensation amount to the heirs of the plane crash victims.

Last week, France's Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety (BEA) had said that "technical work" to download and decode the information from flight data and cockpit voice recorders from the Airbus 320 jet that had crashed on May 22 in a Karachi neighbourhood was completed.

The government will present the initial probe report on the incident before the parliament on June 22.

Also read: BEA says 'technical work' to download flight data complete, analysis underway

Rs6 billion loss per month

The PIA chief told the premier that in the prevailing situation, the national carrier was incurring a loss of almost Rs6 billion every month. A sum of Rs24 billion was being spent annually to pay salaries to its 14,500 employees alone, he said.

During the meeting, a timeline for the PIA's restructuring as well as a comprehensive roadmap over reforms and their implementation was also submitted to the prime minister.

‘Cut down expenditures’

The PM noted that due to the coronavirus pandemic, Pakistan's economy was facing difficulties and that people had to bear the burden of billions of rupees worth of loss on a monthly basis suffered by the state-owned entities.

He stated that it was imperative with regard to the current situation to expedite restructuring and reforms in the PIA, which had been incurring billions of rupees of loss. He also stressed upon slashing expenditures, focusing on enhancing its income, and upgrading the fleet.

PM Imran also directed that special attention should be paid to the PIA-owned domestic and foreign assets, which could be utilised through a complete, transparent, and clear manner. They should create financial resources for the organisation instead of becoming a loss-making burden, he added.

‘Cut down expenditures’

The PM noted that due to the coronavirus pandemic, Pakistan's economy was facing difficulties and that people had to bear the burden of billions of rupees worth of loss on a monthly basis suffered by the state-owned entities.

He stated that it was imperative with regard to the current situation to expedite restructuring and reforms in the PIA, which had been incurring billions of rupees of loss. He also stressed upon slashing expenditures, focusing on enhancing its income, and upgrading the fleet.

PM Imran also directed that special attention should be paid to the PIA-owned domestic and foreign assets, which could be utilised through a complete, transparent, and clear manner. They should create financial resources for the organisation instead of becoming a loss-making burden, he added.