ISLAMABAD – PIA Chairman Saqib Aziz has been given the additional chargeof the chief executive officer.

Air Vice Marshal Noor Abbas has been appointed as chief operating officer.

The Establishment Division rejected the names sent by the PIA chairman.

Earlier, the Supreme Court had declared the appointment of PakistanInternational Airlines’ (PIA) chief executive officer illegal.

Chief Justice Saqib Nisar headed the three-member bench which issued theorder on Musharraf Rasool Cyan’s appointment as CEO. The bench furtherstated that the appointment violated existing rules and regulations and thesuspension will be forwarded to the federal cabinet for further review.

In July, CJP Mian Saqib Nisar ordered the National Accountability Bureau(NAB) to investigate the appointment of Cyan as the CEO of the nationalflag carrier.

The order came after the chief justice took suo motu notice of thedifficulties and protests of passengers at the Skardu airport against afour-hour delay of a PIA Skardu-Islamabad flight, alleging that the airlinemanagement had sacrificed customers’ rights to favour Civil AviationAuthority (CAA) officials with an ‘air safari’.