PIA Illegally Terminated Services of Seven Employees Despite Genuine Degrees, But 22 With Fake Documents Still Working

PIA Illegally Terminated Services of Seven Employees Despite Genuine Degrees, But 22 With Fake Documents Still Working
ISLAMABAD: The national flag carrier Pakistan International Airline (PIA) had terminated the services of seven employees having genuine degrees, the document available with Naya Daur revealed.

Interestingly, their names were [rightly] not mentioned in the list of fake degree holders provided to the Supreme Court. However, they were later reinstated in 2010 but only after going through this mental trauma.

 



According to the documents, the national flag carrier, after surfacing of the fake degrees scam in the airline, terminated the services of these employees back in 2007.

Meanwhile, there is another amusing part of this story: 22 key staff members having bogus degrees and enjoying the backing of powerful officials are still serving in the airline.

The 2007 notification says the services of the seven employees immediately terminated during 64th ELT meeting held on November 28, 2007.

“The committee decided to immediately terminate the services of all employees in management cadre, PG-V & above including cockpit crew, cabin crew whose degrees have been found fake, while it was decided to allow them two years time to submit their original certificates and degrees till 31th December 2009 otherwise their services will be permanently terminated.”



Also read: Pilots, Cockpit Crew Members Among 700+ PIA Employees Holding Fake Degrees







According to the documents, Mohammad Kamran Khan (flight steward), Shukaib Shoukat Choudhry (flight steward), Sana Gul (Airhostess), Mir Hassan (driver), Muhammad Shakeel (driver), Ilyas (security guard) and Usman (security guard) submitted their original degrees within the mentioned timeframe and they were reinstated on their previous positions by the authority in 2010.

The documents explain that a total of 710 employees were being recruited in the airline on various positions including pilots, administrative as well crew staff for years.



Additionally, 200 bogus employees were recruited on daily-wage basis that never worked at all and were getting salaries from the airline.

The documents further added that PIA terminated the services of the employees on special directives of the Supreme Court.

When contacted, a high official of the airline, wishing anonymity, said the PIA had terminated the services of seven employees despite having genuine degrees, but 22 key staff members with bogus degrees and backed by some powerful officials were serving in the airline.

“Some employees have been awarded punishment on fake degrees because they were less influential, others with fake degrees were awarded ‘mini punishment’ while some top officials were not even touched because they are backed by powerful people in the PIA. It is a clear discrimination,” the source added.

Minister for Aviation Ghulam Sarwar Khan in a recent parliamentary discussion said that 500 PIA employees had fake degrees; however, the official documents show that the number is 710.  

Despite repeated attempts to contact, none of the PIA officials, including the spokesman, responded on the issue.
Correspondent Islamabad

The author is a reporter based in Islamabad.