Daily Times

KARACHI: All domestic and international flights of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) were cancelled on Wednesday, airport officials said, as the strike resulting from employees’ protest against the national carrier’s proposed privatisation entered its second day.

PIA employees resumed their protest outside major airports across the country, which came as the federal government invoked the Essential Services (Maintenance) Act, 1952, in the PIA for six months. PIA representatives at Karachi’s Jinnah International Airport, Islamabad’s Benazir Bhutto International Airport, Lahore’s Allama Iqbal International Airport and Peshawar’s Bacha Khan International Airport confirmed that all domestic and international flights scheduled for today were cancelled. “All PIA flights have been suspended indefinitely,” said a PIA inquiry representative at Lahore airport.

He said two PIA flights from London and Milan landed at Lahore airport on Wednesday morning, although services of “employees of a private company” were used to handle the arriving flights. Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) spokesman Pervez George said that the authority has requested private carrier Airblue to schedule additional flights between major cities to accommodate passengers after cancellation of PIA flights. Meanwhile, PIA Joint Action Committee (JAC) spokesman Nasrullah Khan said employees had resumed protest outside all major airports in the country and there has been no change in their demands.

As news of the deaths of two protesting PIA employees in a clash with security forces spread on Tuesday evening, the national flag carrier’s flight operations across the country began shutting down in solidarity with the protesters, officials said. PIA flight operations were suspended around 4pm at Lahore, Islamabad, Quetta and Peshawar airports. The status of PIA flights at Karachi was already uncertain due to the violent protests. As the demonstration turned bloody, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif warned that protesting employees of PIA will be fired from service and can be sent to jail for a year.

Later in the night, PIA Chairman Nasser Jaffer announced that he has resigned from his post following the death of two employees. JAC spokesman Nasrullah Khan claimed on Wednesday that four PIA employees “went missing” last night. The committee will approach police to register First Information Reports against their disappearance, he said. Later, addressing a press conference in the evening, JAC Chairman Sohail Baloch said “the four members are still missing” and that the PPP Karachi President Najmi Alam has said that they are not in the custody of the police.

“Alam said that if the ‘missing members’ are in the custody of Rangers or any other security agency, the government will try to bring them back by the evening,” said Baloch. “This will decide our future course of action. If the government thinks this is becoming a law and order situation, then it should make efforts to resolve it,” said the JAC chairman. He said the protest will continue for the third day and the workers will gather at the airport on Thursday morning, at 8am.

The condition of the injured PIA employee Zubair was improving at the hospital, said a spokesman of the national flag carrier on Wednesday. He further stated that there is no truth in the reports regarding Zubair’s death. National Assembly on January 21 witnessed the passage of six bills, including one to convert the national flag carrier into a public limited company. Under the bill, Pakistan International Airlines Corporation (PIAC) is to be converted into a public limited company as Pakistan International Airlines Company Limited (PIACL). The government plans to split the ailing national flag carrier PIA into two companies and sell the control of its core business to a global airline, but the opposition to the sell-off has been intense.

But representatives of PIA employees announced on Sunday their opposition to the government’s privatisation plan, saying they would continue their strike and bring flight operations to a halt from Tuesday if their demands are not met.