News Detail
Event Title: Senator Hidayat Ullah, Chairman Senate Standing Committee on Aviation Presiding over a Meeting of the Committee at Parliament House Islamabad
Event Date: 2023-03-03
The meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Aviation was held on Friday at Parliament House, Islamabad. Members were briefed on various issues that are currently being faced by the Aviation Sector in Pakistan.
The meeting was presided over by Senator Hidayatullah. Members of the Committee who attended were Senator Saleem Mandviwala, Senator Syed Muhammad Sabir Shah, and Senator Faisal Saleem Rehman along with senior officers from the Ministry of Aviation.
Matters taken up by the Committee included payment of pensions and emoluments to retired employees of the CAA that retired between 2014 to 2014 and 2022 t0 2023; issues faced by retired employees related to House Grants, Medical and Leave encashment; setting up of counters of different agencies at all airport in one place to facilitate passengers and cutting of international airline routes due to non-remittance of ticket sales in foreign exchange.
The meeting commenced with a briefing of issues related to payment of pensions and emoluments to retired employees of the CAA that retired between 2014 to 2015 and 2022 t0 2023. The Committee was informed that the said retired employees were supposed to be paid pensions and other emoluments according to the CAA Pay and Pensions Regulations 2014 (amended 2019), however, instead have been paid according to the Government of Pakistan as per CAA Service Regulations 2000. PCAA inadvertently kept granting pension increases in line with Federal Government till 2019. This resulted in over payment of CA pensioners the disbursement of which amounts to PKR 272 billion. The Committee stressed the need for stringent investigations to probe the matter and formulated a sub-Committee for this purpose. Directions were given to submit a report to the Committee within 30 days. Regarding issues faced by retired employees related to House Grants, Medical and Leave encashment the Committee stressed the need for the matter to be taken up by the sub-Committee as well. A Special audit was recommended as well.
Deliberating over the matter of setting up of counters of different agencies at all airports in one place to facilitate passengers, the Committee recommended that trainings may be conducted to sensitize staff to a more cordial environment. Reviewing the matter of cutting of international airline routes due to non-remittance of ticket sales in foreign exchange the Committee decided to send recommendation in writing to the Ministry to call a collective meeting with all airline heads in order to dispel the negative opinion built about Pakistan and convince them to resume operations as usual.