Identification of Fokker crash victims' belongings

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Identification of Fokker crash victims' belongings

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Journalists allowed after PIA chairman’s intervention

MULTAN:
The PIA officials Wednesday held a ceremony at the Multan Airport to identify the belongings of the plane crash victims by their relatives.

The PIA authorities have received the articles from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) officials. The articles included half-burnt currency notes worth Rs 350,000, 11 cell phones, half-burnt dresses, 10 tolas of gold ornaments, 34 pairs of burnt shoes, documents, four passports, watches etc.

PIA district manager Bashiruddin had hired commercial photographers and moviemakers after paying them handsome money, but strictly barred the journalists and photographers from covering the event and performing their professional duties.

When asked about the banning of journalists’ entry, Bashiruddin said: “The PIA headquarters has directed us to keep the media away from the event venue and not to allow them to cover the event at any level,” he said. When asked to provide the list of the items placed on the tables for identification, he refused to provide it, saying he was busy.

PIA Chairman Tariq Kirmani was contacted after making repeated attempts as he was busy in his meetings. He intervened into the matter and ordered the district manager to allow the journalists to cover the event.

The relatives started rushing to the venue at 11:30am, but were allowed to enter the departure lounge after three-hour delay after going through the hectic and inconvenient process of identification.

Moving scenes were witnessed when the relatives approached the last signs of their loved ones. They complained about the poor arrangements for which they had suffered a lot. A relative, while weeping, said that he had been waiting for the last two hours to identify the things of his deceased brother.

A lot of people could not identify a single item of their departed soul. "Unfortunately, not a single thing of my father could be identified from the items placed on the tables," said Mubashir Gill, son of the deceased CCRI director and cotton scientist M Islam Gill.

Zahida Perveen, wife of deceased passenger Muhammad Irfan, said that her in-laws had snatched her son and broken all relations with her just to get the compensation money announced for the families of the passengers. She said she had succeeded in getting her son back through court. She said that her husband Irfan was working in Spain where he had left three vehicles, but she did not know how to get back her husband's assets.

Those who attended the ceremony were the relatives of Captain Hamid (captain), Abrar Chughtai (first officer), Amira Sikandar and Tabana Jamil (air-hostesses), Justice Nazir Siddiqui, Justice Nawaz Bhatti, Brig Farhat Aftab, Brig Aftab Ahmed, BZU Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Naseer Ahmed Khan, Captain Naveed Tariq, advocate Mian Arshad Latif (Khanewal), Delhi PIA station manager Ijaz Ali Chattha, deputy attorney general Dr Suhail Ahmed, PIA officer Mr & Mrs Salim Shah, Prof Dr Iftikhar Raja, Arshad Azad, Mir Arshad Baig, Ishfaq Ahmed, Waseem Ahmed, Malik Saeed, Ahmed Ijaz, Muhammad Irfan, advocate Zia Haider, Kanwal Iqbal (niece of Makhdoom Javed Hashmi), Samina Mushtaq, Abdul Rahman, Aftab Hussain Khan, Asmatullah Khan, Imtiaz Anwar, Muhammad Murtaza, Sakhi Muhammad, Muhammad Naeem Mughal, Mrs Capt Hasnain, Altaf Hussain, Ali Imran, Ms Eish, Dr Farzana Kausar, Dr Farheen Fatima, Anjum, Habib, Dr Humaira Ashraf, Muhammad Aslam Shad, Central Cotton Research Institute (Multan) director Muhammad Islam Gill, Naveed and Tehsin Zahra.

Source: The News
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