The action of the Peshawar High Court (PHC) on a petition filed by Marvi Memon and families of the Airblue plane crash victims looks just right. A two-member bench of the PHC has ordered the federal government on Wednesday to suspend the Director General of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) until the inquiry by foreign experts, as directed by the court, is completed into the Airblue plane crash and, now, also the Bhoja Air crash. The court has also issued contempt of court notices to him and the Secretary Defence for not complying with the court’s previous orders given on January 19 and February 21. The court, while rejecting the inconclusive inquiry report on the Airblue crash had ordered a fresh investigation by international experts. It had also directed the Defence Ministry and the CAA to conduct safety audits of all aircraft of both public and private airlines so as to safeguard the lives of citizens. The observation of the PHC that if the relevant authorities acted upon court orders, the latest plane crash could have been avoided, is justified. They did not take the court orders seriously and continued with their usual dilly-dallying tactics. Their irresponsible attitude reflects their perception of the worth of human life. They brazenly kept compromising it by allowing defective aircraft, ill-trained aircrew and overall substandard civil aviation arrangements. From the national flag carrier to all three private airlines, matters smell rotten. Passengers’ safety issues surface as regularly as delays. During the proceedings, the bench also hinted at anomalies and corruption it had observed with regard to the issuance of the licence to Bhoja Air with which it had resurrected its operations. A show cause notice has been issued to the head of the airline. Regrettably, there is a dangerous trend of buying quite old aircraft by the private airlines, as they are cheaper. It has to be checked at all costs to prevent any further irreparable loss of precious lives. The defence minister should answer the court’s query regarding his poor performance. If this is his way of running matters, passengers are not safe at all. At present, people’s confidence in both public and private airlines is at an all-time low. The PHC must, indeed, take serious notice if the government and its functionaries do not abide by its orders this time. *