Report: Masood Anwar
One after another corruption tales unfolding in National carrier, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA). Following over Rs.4 billion corruption, uncovered by the Karachi papers, another mega corruption scandal for Rs.3 billion by PIA management has been came fore.
According to the details obtained by the correspondence of Karachi papers, the human resource and finance department of the national airlines betrayed company’s employees by calculating their pensions on arbitrary rules, rather than the official guidelines.
Pilots’ pension are calculated based on their basic pay, flying allowance, merit, ad hoc relief and gratuity, with the basic pay and flying allowance being the most significant.
According to the Pakistan Airline Pilots Association (PALPA), PIA management has recorded the basic pay of one of the pilot Capt. Mujeeb (P-47435) as Rs.32,666 in his pension calculation, despite his last pay slip shows the basic pay of Rs.150,728.
Similarly, there is significant discrepancy in the calculation of his flying allowance. According to PIA’s record maintained by management, his per-hour flying allowance is listed as Rs.1,531, while his pay slip indicates it as Rs.8,530. According to PIA management, Captain Mujeeb’s pension amounts to Rs.118,453, whereas PALPA’s calculations put it at Rs.592,873.
Capt. Imran Narejo, General Secretary PALPA, while talking to Karachi Papers claimed that they have hundreds of such cases of pilots in which the PIA management has deliberately miscalculated pilots’ pensions and management also insisted that the pilots’ pensions calculations would be based on their preference instead of the last pay slips.
Capt. Narejo further stated that the pensions of all other employees in PIA are calculated based on their last pay slip. He claimed that if all the cases of pilots considered together, PIA management has embezzled around Rs.3 billion.
Captain Narejo says that he brought this matter to the notice of the then Minister of Aviation, Khawaja Saad Rafiq in 2022. On which Khawaja Saad Rafiq was also surprised and later, he also formed a pension committee headed by Syed Asif Gillani, Director Flight Operations.
The other members of said committee include PIA’s Chief Financial Officer, Amos Nadeem, Chief Engineer, Afzal Noor, General Manager Organization Management, Iqtidar A Baloch and Manager Payroll, Mohammad Umair Mirza.
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He added that the pension committee submitted its recommendations to the PIA management on November 24, 2022, but the PIA management did not consider this report.
