PIA In A Fix Over Fate of 23 Employees

[Abbas Ali]

By: Amraiz Khan | Published: September 03, 2009

LAHORE - The PIA has hired another batch of 100 employees, on contract basis, with verbal order from Islamabad and the local management was at a loss as what to do with them, since there were no written orders to take care of a batch of 23 hired for Lahore, sources in the airline revealed on Wednesday.

They said that recruitment has been made in various sections like traffic, sales, ticketing, administration Islamabad on monthly pay of Rs12,000 each through a contractor, namely United HR Services.
A senior officer said that if these recruits would be paid Rs12,000, the contractor would also has be to paid at least Rs5,000 per head for his services as he was paying Rs6,000 to the employees already hired while drawing more from the airline.

It is to be noted that over a thousand employees whose services were terminated on various disciplinary grounds or for irregularities in recruitment most of them have been reinstated with back dated seniority and salary. One such employee happens to be Syed Kashif Raza P-61075, whose services were terminated, when he was serving as a Flight Steward. While on a flight to Dubai, Mr Kashif’s services were terminated on disciplinary grounds. He happens to be the close relative of PIA MD. Mr Kashif has now been selected for “Permanent posting to Frankfurt, Germany as Field Service Officer.

PIA had discontinued posting Field Service Officers (FSO) almost over five years ago, when it decided to outsource its Flight Kitchen at Karachi. It is noteworthy that duty of an FSO is to look after the flight kitchen services at foreign stations of the airline. This vacancy has been created to accommodate Mr Kashif and his papers have been sent to Islamabad for IB Clearance by Security Manager in a letter dated 24 July Ref SEC-SM (O&T)/25/IS/F.SVCS/239.

Source: The Nation

[saadm80]

This Is Happeneing All Over In PIA. 3 Years Back 2 Aircraft Engineers Were Posted To Toronto and They Did Their Process of Visa and clearence and when the time came for the Release Order Management Said it is not Vaiable to post engineers there. I Would Like To Mention This As Well That Gm Toronto At That Time E-Mailed To Then HR Director Wasim Bari and No Action Was Taken.

So My Point Is That Any Thing Can Happen In PIA.

[inducedrag]

Sister os Mr Kashif who happens to be the wife of MD PIA Ijaz Haroon has also been reemployed in PIA at Manchester =D>

[Abbas Ali]

The PIA has hired another batch of 100 employees, on contract basis, with verbal order from Islamabad and the local management was at a loss as what to do with them

It is to be noted that over a thousand employees whose services were terminated on various disciplinary grounds or for irregularities in recruitment most of them have been reinstated with back dated seniority and salary.

Air Marshal (Retd.) Zafar A. Chaudhry was Managing Director PIA for a short period of time from 1971 to 72. In his book titled ‘Mosaic Of Memory’, Air Marshal Zafar A. Chaudhry describes his meeting as MD PIA with then President of Pakistan Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in 1971.

Here’s excerpt from the book describing that meeting.

A Fair Encounter

I had not met Mr. Bhutto before he rang me up one day in 1971 and said he wanted to see me. He came to PIA House in the evening as agreed and we met over a cup of tea. He asked me if Mr. Hafiz Pirzada had delivered his message to me. I said Mr. Pirzada had met me a few times but had not delivered any message from him. He said he had asked him to tell me that I need not bother too much about the various letters of recommendation that he had been writing to me. I said I was very glad to hear this because I had taken no action on his letters as none had really been necessary. He said, being political leaders, sometimes they simply had to oblige people and write such letters, but I need not take them seriously. Then, he added, “But if there is something special, I shall either give you a ring or come and see you. And that is why I am here today.”

I inquired what I could do for him. He made two recommendations, saying that these were very important to him politically, and I simply had to accommodate him. One was the reinstatement of an officer being relieved of his appointment, and the other for the appointment of a young lady as an air-hostess, who was somewhat overweight. I took a deep breath and said, “You have explained your problems to me; do I have your permission to explain my problems to you?” He smiled, leaned back and said “Yes, certainly.” At some length, I explained that the person whose services were being dispensed with had been guilty of obvious dishonesty in money matters, and not only would it be wrong to withdraw the well-merited action against him, but it would also convince my subordinates that my word counted for nothing, thereby undermining my authority and effectiveness as the head of the airline. I said no one would ever take my seriously again, and I might as well go back to the air force. He said only the next two months were critical for him in this matter, as he simply could not do without the political support of this man’s sister who was an important leader of his party, and he did not care what happened afterwards. I told him that the man had already been sent on accumulated leave, which exceeded two months, and the order of termination of his services would be served when he returned from leave. Mr. Bhutto said, “Oh, that’s fine. This will get her off my back for now, and I don’t care a damn what this ‘so and so’ does afterwards.”

As for the young lady, I said I could not very well send for the person in charge of selection and tell him that such and such a person should be selected even if she did not come up to the standard we had laid down. This would be wrong in principle and would also compromise my position with a subordinate. We laid down rules and procedures and expected the persons in charge to work them fairly and honestly. I said, perhaps, he should suggest to the young lady that she should shed a few pounds and try again. Mr. Bhutto smiled and said he appreciated my point of view and would not pursue the matter any further. I was very pleased that his response was one of understanding and sympathy for my stand, and I was greatly relieved that he had agreed not to press his requests. His manner was most friendly, and he appeared to appreciate my efforts to run things fairly and in an above board fashion. So, the first meeting went rather well; I was impressed with Mr. Bhutto’s reasonableness, and I think he formed a favourable impression of me.

[kamalla]

A Fair Encounter

I had not met Mr. Bhutto before he rang me up one day in 1971 and said he wanted to see me. He came to PIA House in the evening as agreed and we met over a cup of tea. He asked me if Mr. Hafiz Pirzada had delivered his message to me. I said Mr. Pirzada had met me a few times but had not delivered any message from him. He said he had asked him to tell me that I need not bother too much about the various letters of recommendation that he had been writing to me. I said I was very glad to hear this because I had taken no action on his letters as none had really been necessary. He said, being political leaders, sometimes they simply had to oblige people and write such letters, but I need not take them seriously. Then, he added, “But if there is something special, I shall either give you a ring or come and see you. And that is why I am here today.”

I inquired what I could do for him. He made two recommendations, saying that these were very important to him politically, and I simply had to accommodate him. One was the reinstatement of an officer being relieved of his appointment, and the other for the appointment of a young lady as an air-hostess, who was somewhat overweight. I took a deep breath and said, “You have explained your problems to me; do I have your permission to explain my problems to you?” He smiled, leaned back and said “Yes, certainly.” At some length, I explained that the person whose services were being dispensed with had been guilty of obvious dishonesty in money matters, and not only would it be wrong to withdraw the well-merited action against him, but it would also convince my subordinates that my word counted for nothing, thereby undermining my authority and effectiveness as the head of the airline. I said no one would ever take my seriously again, and I might as well go back to the air force. He said only the next two months were critical for him in this matter, as he simply could not do without the political support of this man’s sister who was an important leader of his party, and he did not care what happened afterwards. I told him that the man had already been sent on accumulated leave, which exceeded two months, and the order of termination of his services would be served when he returned from leave. Mr. Bhutto said, “Oh, that’s fine. This will get her off my back for now, and I don’t care a damn what this ‘so and so’ does afterwards.”

As for the young lady, I said I could not very well send for the person in charge of selection and tell him that such and such a person should be selected even if she did not come up to the standard we had laid down. This would be wrong in principle and would also compromise my position with a subordinate. We laid down rules and procedures and expected the persons in charge to work them fairly and honestly. I said, perhaps, he should suggest to the young lady that she should shed a few pounds and try again. Mr. Bhutto smiled and said he appreciated my point of view and would not pursue the matter any further. I was very pleased that his response was one of understanding and sympathy for my stand, and I was greatly relieved that he had agreed not to press his requests. His manner was most friendly, and he appeared to appreciate my efforts to run things fairly and in an above board fashion. So, the first meeting went rather well; I was impressed with Mr. Bhutto’s reasonableness, and I think he formed a favourable impression of me.

Sounds quite fair. I doubt we could expect this much from the current PPP rulers.

[Abbas Ali]

Btw, the trend of appointing large number of political workers without merit as employees in PIA began in early 70s according to articles related to PIA's history and this led to gradual increase in overstaffing problem in the airline and slow decline in its performance and international ranking in airline industry.

I remember an article in which author said that government in early 70s raped PIA by appointing large number of policital workers in the airline without merit.

Abbas

[kamalla]

Btw, the trend of appointing large number of political workers without merit as employees in PIA began in early 70s according to articles related to PIA's history and this led to gradual increase in overstaffing problem in the airline and slow decline in its performance and international ranking in airline industry.

I remember an article in which author said that government in early 70s raped PIA by appointing large number of policital workers in the airline without merit.

Abbas

Well, most things in Pakistan started to go downhill in the 1970s and were further worsened in the 1980s during the time of Gen. Zia. I grew up hearing stories from my Grandparents about how the 1960s saw the biggest improvement for Pakistan (during Ayub Khan's rule), but from 1970s onward things started going down hill especially when all industry/banks were made public.

[riz]

This is turning into privatization VS nationalization.