Daily Times

LAHORE: After the grant of a special permission by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), the Shaheen Air on Friday sent a plane to bring back 300 Pakistanis stranded in a Chinese port city since July 29 because of the suspension of the airline’s operations over non-payment of arrears.

The permission was granted after the Supreme Court of Pakistan took notice of the matter earlier this week.

At the hearing by a three-member bench headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, summons were issued for the owner of the private airline. The Shaheen Air owner would appear in the court next week on Tuesday.

As many as 300 Pakistanis have been stranded at the airport in the Chinese port city of Guangzhou, after Shaheen Air flight was cancelled on July 29 over non-payment of arrears amounting to Rs1.5 billion. The airline’s international operations were suspended a week ago, and it was only allowed to operate Hajj flights.

At the hearing on Friday, the airline’s regional director informed the bench that Shaheen Air was the only flight operator between Guangzhou and Lahore.

The chief justice ordered the Shaheen Air to ensure that all stranded passengers were brought back to Pakistan before Monday. The court ordered the owner of Shaheen Air to appear before it on Tuesday to report progress on the matter, and it also directed the CAA to prepare a report on the condition of the plane sent to bring back the passengers from China.

Separately, speaking to the media, a spokesperson for the airline said that the plane sent on CAA’s special permission had landed in China. It would take off with the stranded Pakistani passengers at 1035pm local time (around 735 PST) and is expected to land at the Lahore airport around 2am on Saturday morning.

The flight will carry the stranded passengers as well as those who booked their tickets for August 3, the spokesperson said, adding that the airline has been bearing food and accommodation expenses of passengers stuck at the airport since July 29.

Published in Daily Times, August 4^th 2018.