ISLAMABAD: Minister for Aviation Division, Ghulam Sarwar Khan on Thursdaysaid that during last five years, degrees of 521 employees of PakistanInternational Airlines were found fake, bogus or tempered.
Replying to a question of Ms. Tahira Aurangzeb in the National Assembly,the minister said that out of total, 329 Pakistan International AirlinesCorporation Limited (PIACL) employees have been separated from servicestill date while 192 employees were on court stay or their cases are underprocess.
In a written reply to a question of Dr Shazia Sobia Aslam Soomro, theminister said that PIA present management had taken measures to improve itsperformance and reduce the losses including launching of viable new routeslike Sialkot-Sharjah, Lahore-Muscat, Islamabad-Doha andLahore-Bangkok-Kualalampur, Sialkot-Paris Barcelona, Peshawar-Sharjah,Peshawar-Al-Ain and Multan-Sharjah.
These routes are satisfactory and economically viable. He added other stepsincluding increasing frequencies and capacity on profitable routes likeJeddah and Madina especially from Faisalabad, closure of loss making routeslike, New York, Salalah (Oman), Kuwait, Mumbai, replacing the 20 years oldand highly expensive software system with new HITIT which is very costeffective and huge savings are expected.
He said that an effective austerity and cost saving drive was initiatedwhich included curtailment of unnecessary visits by officials both foreignand domestic.
He said instructions have been issued to make use of technologicalassistance like video calls, conference calls etc.
He said that other austerity measures included retrieving company vehiclesand eliminating fuel allocations accordingly, stoppage of all officiatingand extra allowances given on additional assignments to officials, ban onovertime allowances in all cadres, abolishing VIP protocols and deploymentof workers on real assignments.
He said that the steps are also being taken for streamlining the businessactivities and discipline at Airport Hotel which was going in losses andnow revenues were improving. He added effective monitoring and vigilanceare being made of all areas to eliminate pilferage and leakages.
Ghulam Sarwar said that an improvement in food quality was made withinclusion of refined menu in the light of recommendations and suggestionsreceived from passengers besides introduction of executive economy class onEuropean and Gulf sectors which were attracting more customers.
He said that rationalization of fares according to market demand and delaysof flights have been cut down significantly by better planning inengineering besides flight operation and ground handling departments,special emphasis on cargo business with monitoring of performance,rationalization of cargo fares and more effective liaison with allstakeholders and special focus on Umrah and Ziarat business by introductionof attractive fares and increasing capacity.