As many as 13 employees of the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) have been fired after they were found involved in a heroin smuggling case in May this year.
The London bound flight had been inspected as per schedule and was cleared only to land at Heathrow airport, where security officials found 20 kilograms of heroin on the flight.
The decision to fire employees comes in the aftermath of a re-evaluation of rules that have been made more stringent. Termination from service has now been sanctioned as the maximum punishment for those found involved in gross misconduct, particularly in instances of smuggling of banned substances.
According to the report submitted to the Senate special committee following investigations, the airlines hopes that improved surveillance mechanisms will enable better oversight about banned substances making their way to PIA flights.
While increased security provisions may solve the issue momentarily, the issue of drug abuse and the ease of access to dangerous drugs in Pakistan should be the prime concern. The government needs to deal with this issue as it is connected with other important issues like human trafficking and smuggling, which all too often also degrade Pakistan’s reputation at the international level.
Airports should be considered the last possible concern for security officials. The fact that groups or individuals in Pakistan are confident enough to bring banned substances into an international airport and aboard foreign flights reflects their relative ease of distribution within the country.
While greater surveillance at airports is necessary, the source of the issue — availability of drugs — must not be forgotten and should be addressed by the authorities concerned. *
Published in Daily Times, December 18th 2017.