IA explains status of 18 directors on its board

ISLAMABAD: The management of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has been promoting officers as directors, apparently in violation of court’s orders and in some cases even contempt notices have been issued and in the process has vastly exceeded the actual number of approved posts of directors.

At present there are eighteen directors in PIA against approved posts of twelve hence PIA has 50 per cent more top executives than allowed by law.The Spokesman of PIA, Mashood Tajwer while talking to The News agreed that there were 18 directors but explained the position.

According to details, the PIA Board of Directors in its 255th meeting had declared that the number of directors in PIA could not exceed twelve but the incumbent management had promoted six extra directors which had resulted in issuance of at least five notices of contempt of court against Director Human Resource, Admin and Coordination, Mr Aijaz Mazhar.

The 18 directors on the payroll of PIA include, Captain Qasim Hayat, Director Flight Operations; Shahnawaz Rehman, Director Corporate Planning, Maqsood Ahmed, Director Engineering (Posted); Nayyar Hayat, Director Finance/Chief Financial Officer; S Aijaz Mazhar, Director HRA & C; Babar Kamal Mumtaz, Director (Without Assignment); Ghazala Rashid, Executive Director Sky Rooms; Capt. S. Hamid Gardezi, Director Flight Safety; AVM Sohail Director, Precision Engineering; Saminuddin Naqvi, Director Engineering (Incumbent); Khurram Mushtaq, Director (Without assignment); Rashid Ahmed, Director (Without Assignment); Omar Razzaque, Director P&L; W J Bornshin, Director Airport Services; Anjum Amin Mirza, Director Training & Development and Accountability; Amanullah Qureshi, Director

Flight Services and Food Services; Amir Ali, Director MRO and EASA-145 Certification and Sohail Yaqoob Officiating Director Marketing.

However, Spokesman Mashood Tajwer explained that out of the eighteen directors in PIA, Babar Kamal Mumtaz was on Leave Priority to Retirement while Sohail Yaqoob was officiating director. He maintained that it was a norm in PIA that the post of Director Precision Engineering was always occupied by the officers from Pakistan Air Force.

He continued that one Ghazala Rashid had gone on deputation as Executive Director to a hotel, which had its own board but he admitted that Ms Ghazala was officer of director level in PIA.

Regarding Khurram Mushtaq, Director without assignment, the PIA spokesman said that there were pending litigations in his case. However regarding another director without assignment, Rashid Ahmad, Tajwer maintained that he had been kept without assignment and there were no litigations in his case.

“So out of the 18 directors, one is retiring on April 3; one has gone on deputation to Sky Rooms; two are without assignment; one post belongs to Air Force while one is officiating director, therefore, the remaining directors are twelve”, PIA Spokesman said.

To the question if a post is occupied by PAF or any other department, does that post belong to that department? The PIA spokesman answered in negative but maintained that the post of Director Precision Engineering was always occupied by PAF therefore when PIA counted its directors, it counted the officers of PIA.

To another question that if a director is not assigned any department, doesn’t he remain a director? The PIA spokesman was of the view that there might be a confusion that PIA might have 12 functioning directors excluding those without assignment/deputation or the actual number of directors should be twelve, but at present, PIA had twelve functioning directors.

He said that the number of directors functioning/not functioning had exceeded twelve because recently, the national flag carrier abolished two posts of deputy managing directors i.e DMD Engineering and DMD Operations therefore one of the DMD was demoted and made director.It is worth mentioning here that PIA management has been issued at least five contempt of court notices for promoting the directors despite clear ban by the Sindh High Court.