PIA pilots call off six-day ‘go slow’ to start fresh talks

KARACHI: The pilots of Pakistan International Airlines on Wednesday temporarily called off a six-day-long go slow that cancelled almost 90 flights and cost the national carrier millions of rupees, following an assurance from the Senate standing committee that their demands will be negotiated.
“We [Pakistan Airlines Pilots’ Association — PALPA] have decided to honour the words of the Senate’s standing committee and its chairman Senator Talha Mahmood, and called off our protest till Friday (October 9) 2pm,” Amir Hashmi, PALPA president, said in a statement.
“Now, the secretary of aviation would hold talks with us and report back to the committee.”
A senior PIA official said flights returned to normal on Wednesday as PALPA called off its six-day-long go slow on the request of the Senate’s standing committee on aviation.
“I can confirm that the pilots have put an end to the strike, and the management is ready to restart talks with them,” the official said.
“Now both the stakeholders will hold talks for two days and will try to resolve all the issues amicably, and will report the outcome of the negotiations to the standing committee on Friday.”
Another PIA official said no flights were cancelled on Wednesday, and the Pakistan Navy had provided an ATR aircraft with crew in case any pilot reported sick.
“It was an alternative arrangement to keep our flight schedule intact,” he added.
The PIA management had announced a “Plan B” on Tuesday to run its flight operations uninterrupted, saying it would hire new pilots on contract basis while it also contacted the Pakistan Navy for aviators.
Hashmi of PALPA said Senator Talha had “admitted that our demands are just and right, and then he requested us to give PIA and the aviation division some time to resolve the issue.
“We have been doing our best not to disturb the Haj operation, and we only refused to operate those flights that did not have double crew as required by the aviation rules and regulation prevailing under PIA-PALPA working agreement,” he added.
“This time again, we accepted the request of the standing committee and decided to give more time to the aviation division to find a solution to this issue.”
The PALPA president said the pilots’ body hoped the secretary of aviation would come up with some solution and that their demands would be met. “We hope that our demands are accepted to prevent matters from worsening,” he said.
The PALPA chief said that the standoff disrupted around 120 flights in six days while inflicting a huge financial loss to the airline “whose management initially refused to listen to the demands and initially didn’t even participate in talks held at the aviation division”.
The standoff between the PALPA and PIA management had surfaced after the CAA suspended the licences of two pilots for up to two years for operating flights without its permission.
The standoff intensified after two-day talks on pay and other working conditions between the PALPA and the government’s aviation division had failed.
The government had on Monday rejected PALPA’s demands, including immediate replacement of the director of flight operations, withdrawal of all show-cause notices, inquiries/investigations and legal notices issued to the pilots on disciplinary grounds and reinstatement of all the grounded pilots and fixation of seniority of pilots “as per the wishes of PALPA”.
The CAA on Tuesday had asked 21 sick pilots to appear before a team of doctors to have “their medical and psychological condition” examined.
It has constituted a medical board to examine the PIA pilots reporting sick simultaneously to ascertain their professional viability.
The CAA had asked the pilots to appear before the medical board on October 8th, 12th and 19th in three groups.