Daily Times

The case made by the Minister of Aviation, Mr Ghulam Sarwar Khan, and the CEO of PIA, Air Marshal ® Arshad Mahmood Malik, to accuse 141 PIA pilots of obtaining fraudulent licenses seems strange to say the least. One would not expect those in charge of institutions to malign them. Anywhere else, they would resign. Who issued the licenses? Well, they did! Not personally, but the institutions that they head licensed the pilots. Had the claim been that a handful of the pilots had somehow bribed some officials in the Civil Aviation Authority to get their licenses, one might believe it. But all of the 141? Come on! One would need extremely strong evidence to believe it. But why did this suddenly come up? Is there, perhaps, a connection between this claim and the PIA plane crash? Am I going to be asked to believe that the credentials of all of these pilots had long been under investigation and it was pure coincidence that the statement came in the wake of the outcry about the plane crash? Would you, Mr Minister, or Air Marshal, like to calculate those odds? Most BSc graduates would be able to able to perform this feat, but can you Mr Minister and CEO — or are your degrees fake too. Are they?

There was an Air Marshal (Nur Khan) before you who had made PIA “Great people to fly with” — and now there is you who have made it “Great people to be grounded with.”

Let me start by asking why the blame for the crash was immediately fixed on the cabin crew and the control tower and not on the aircraft. It was on account of the report by an Inquiry Committee, in which the Aircraft manufacturer declared that there was no technical problem with the aircraft, but the blame rested squarely on the crew, the control tower and anywhere but the aircraft. Why should I take their word for it? Oh, because they are the experts. Well, the pilots are the experts in flying. Why not believe them? Oh, because they will naturally try to absolve themselves of guilt and pass the blame onto others. Does it not seem strange, then, that a suspect (the aircraft) is made a judge (in the person of the “expert” I am expected to believe)? Whoever heard of making a suspect a judge? Had the situation been reversed and the pilots asked to give judgement, and if they cast the blame on all others, would I not doubt their judgement? “Justice must not only be done, it must be seen to be done,” and in this instance, it is certainly not seen to be done.

Another question. Why this unseemly haste to charge all the pilots? In the usual procedures in government service, due notice is given to all accused and a lot of time taken before they are charge-sheeted. You see, not only the licenses of the pilots can be questioned, but your motivation as well. Could it be to quickly cast the blame elsewhere? Could it be that you had a grudge against the pilots and wanted to get rid of them? Could it, Mr CEO, be to make a place for other pilots whom you want to see inducted — perhaps those retired from the Air Force? There was an Air Marshal (Nur Khan) before you who had made PIA “Great people to fly with” — and now there is you who have made it “Great people to be grounded with.” Donald Trump had decided to make “America Great Again” and succeeded in raising it unchallenged to the #1 spot — in Coronavirus infections and deaths. Now you have raised PIA to the unchallenged #1 spot — in disrepute. Having sullied the reputation of all Pakistani pilots so that they will not let Pakistani pilots land there, will you now tell the European Union Aviation Safety Agency, “It is these civvies who are unreliable. Let our planes fly and we will provide the reliable pilots, maintenance technicians and control tower operators. You do not need to worry about it.”? Do you seriously expect that now they will believe you? Will they not say, “Well he will naturally say so?”

Let us come to the reliability of Pakistani certificates and degrees. When I was a private student for the Matriculation, Shaukat Ayub, son of the President, Ayub Khan, was making his umpteenth attempt at passing the examination. Despite being the son of the Army Chief, he had steadily failed. Now, the School smuggled in help to enable him to pass, while the invigilators turned a blind eye. Shaukat was terrified that his father might find out. Later, when my brother was taking the Senior Cambridge examination, he had to wrestle the papers away from the teachers who wanted to write them for him. Later still, the youngest son of Ayub Khan, Tahir Ayub, set a record in the Higher Senior Cambridge examination, went to Cambridge on account of it and was sent down within one term. Any guesses on “why?” Let me ask the worthy PM, “Did you wrestle the papers away from the teachers or did you get your Higher Senior Cambridge the Tahir Ayub way?” Since this problem was rife, do you not have to prove your innocence in the matter? If the PIA pilots are guilty unless proved innocent, are not you Mr PM? Where is your proof?

Let us go further. When I appeared for my BSc there was a scandal because some clerks had taken bribes to take marks from some and give them to others while changing the real roll numbers to fictitious ones and back. When this was caught, they tried to muddy the trail by mixing up many others, so that some people got high marks for papers that they had not even claimed to have taken and some got unexpectedly low marks. Would you then presume that I was one of the guilty ones? From first division marks in Urdu in the sessional marks, I was failed in it. Does that prove my innocence? How about the others who got high marks? Are they all guilty? Let me go further, Mr CEO. I have been teaching in NUST and one DG of a School (who happened to have been a PAF cadet at one time) insisted that a faculty member give high marks to his relative, who was a student there. (This is the same person who was later removed as the Executive Director of HEC because of plagiarism committed by him.) When the faculty member did not do so, he was asked to leave and went elsewhere. “We know how these things go at Risalpur.” Did you, Mr CEO get your degree from there? If so, can you prove that you were innocent of getting a degree by fraudulent means? Can you? Remember, by your own rules, you are guilty until you prove your innocence.

I have penned this letter because injustice increasingly bothers me. Mr Imran Khan, you were elected as Prime Minister on the platform of the Tehreek-i-Insaaf (the Movement for Justice). Mr PM, please honour your pledge; let us see some justice.

The writer is a fellow of the Pakistan Academy of Sciences and a Distinguished National Professor of the Higher Education Commission