SENATORS from the opposition had a busy day in the House on Monday as they grilled Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar whose ministry also oversees PIA. The national flag carrier continues to be in dire straits both economically and operationally. While its airfares have skyrocketed in opposition to the trend seen elsewhere in the regional airline market, PIA’s performance falls drastically short of passengers’ expectations. Flight cancellations, inordinate delays, an ageing fleet, technical faults, a hefty debt burden, compounding losses, political appointments, overstaffing, an unprofessional management and poor service are factors that have pushed PIA to the brink. Government interference at the appointment and management levels continues to be behind many of the unfortunate facts that keep PIA from being airborne with grace.

Scandals at the airline have abounded in recent years, though not all have been politically motivated. Much of the fleet is grounded. The aircraft that fly are said to do so under precarious technical conditions, which has resulted in the embarrassing ban on all but certain types of PIA planes flying to western destinations. Other controversies such as an arrangement to contract out the provision of spare parts to a single Dubai-based firm have also led to concerns over non-transparency in such dealings. The agreement to share flight codes with Turkish Airlines, whereby PIA would give up most European and North American destinations to the said airline by terminating its West-bound flights at Istanbul, was no less controversial. All this, while the airline’s fortunes have kept diving deeper into the red, impacting on its operations.

According to the defence minister, a potent financial shot in the arm is what the doctors propose for the ailing carrier; a restructuring plan has been sent to the finance ministry while the prime minister awaits recommendations from a committee he had set up to right the wrongs at PIA. This is all very well, but these measures will only serve as palliatives and not as a permanent cure. Besides a bailout plan, the airline needs a structural overhaul, a professional management that should determine and stick to an employee-aircraft ratio, and non-interference from the government in its affairs. This means saying goodbye to political appointments, besides shedding the burden officialdom places on the day-to-day operations of the carrier through the reservation of seats and subsidised air tickets for government functionaries and other beneficiaries.
Operational losses can be overcome and profits made only by having in place a management that is well versed in modern aviation practices. There is no dearth of qualified professionals in the country; only the political will is lacking.


THE caving in of a factory in Lahore on Monday represents the virtual fall of a system. Initial reports indicate that there was not much that was legal about the factory which produced veterinary drugs and that collapsed in a huge blast caused probably by a boiler explosion. Those living in the area were in litigation with the factory owner — but there is evidence to suggest that these litigants are themselves the inhabitants of a place that does not exist on the official map. The New Town, the site of Monday’s blast, is said to be an unplanned scheme, a disaster that was allowed to develop brick by brick over time. This unplanned status must have made it easier for an unmonitored factory to break the law. Unfortunately, this is the norm in Pakistan. There is nothing unusual about an industrial unit existing in the midst of a residential colony.

Inside the factory, it is doubtful if many laws were adhered to. The dead include children, indicating the involvement of child labour. It is unclear whether the large number of women employed at the factory had proper legal cover — the point being that women workers are even more vulnerable to exploitation in the country than routinely wronged male workers. The absence of labour inspectors might have played a role in the making of this tragedy. These inspectors have been held up for a whole decade now. The Pervaiz Elahi government thought they were surplus to the requirement of the times and Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif seems to be in agreement with Mr Elahi on at least this point. The Pervaiz Elahi set-up did have local government representatives who, at least in theory, could keep an eye on proceedings in their neighbourhood. Mr Sharif does not have local government councillors and the administration is remote-controlled by the chief minister. The perils of centralisation have been confirmed all too frequently for Mr Sharif to insist on holding on to his sole saviour’s brief any longer. A process of reform where responsibility is clearly defined and affixed must not await another fall.


REPORTS from across the country point once again to the dismal state of primary education in rural Pakistan. Fifty girls’ primary schools in rural Peshawar have no teachers to speak of. Meanwhile, according to a survey carried out by this paper, at least 30 girls’ and boys’ schools have been inoperative, some for many years, in just two union councils of Dadu. Both NGOs and government officials admit this is a problem in villages across the district. In what has now become a familiar story, abandoned school buildings were found being used as cattle pens and guest houses. Locals said they were waiting for teachers to be posted or to start showing up for duty.

What makes the reports even more alarming is that officials at the highest levels seem to be fully aware of these issues. There also appear to be plans and instructions in place for resolving them that are simply not being implemented by the provincial education departments. The situation outside Peshawar exists despite a ‘rationalisation policy’ — instituted over a year ago — that was meant to redistribute teachers; schools in Peshawar’s urban areas have more teachers than they need, in part because higher rent allowances and greater security in urban areas have encouraged teachers to apply for transfers away from their rural postings. Even that plan would have resulted in a ratio of just one teacher for every 40 students, but has not been executed. In Dadu, district-level bureaucrats claim the problem had been acknowledged by the provincial chief minister and education secretary and that instructions had been issued to lower-level officers to reopen schools and stop payments to absentee teachers. However, even as officials continue to pay lip service to the cause, the children of rural Pakistani have little but empty school buildings to look forward to.

__________________
Regards,
CHAIRMAN MAO