ICAO completes assessment of Pakistan’s aviation security systems

LAHORE: The security audit team of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has completed its assessment of Pakistan’s aviation security systems.

In a briefing held at the headquarters of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), the team comprising four members provided an overview of the full-scale audit conducted on Pakistan’s aviation industry security systems. According to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) spokesperson, Oscar Rubio Annibal, the team leader, congratulated the director general of CAA on the significant improvements, particularly following the recent enactment of the CAA Act 2023 legislation. The team saw that CAA not only surpassed the new 2023 ICAO benchmark, but also came close to achieving the ICAO goals set for 2030.

During the assessment, the audit team primarily focused on evaluating the CAA Aviation Security Directorate for a duration of five days. Subsequently, for the following four days, they examined the implementation of security protocols in various aviation security areas at Jinnah International Airport, including the airport itself, the Airport Security Force (ASF), domestic and international airlines, cargo companies, ground handling companies and catering companies. The IQ security team also visited the passport office during the audit and they seemed satisfied and impressed with the procedure. The IQ team also interacted with the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) immigration staff and examined their working procedures. The current full security audit was the first in-site full-scale audit since the 2019 partial audit.