IHC adjourns objection plea on Bhoja air crash report

ISLAMABAD: Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui of the Islamabad High Court on Thursday adjourned an application till February 24 for argument wherein the applicants raised objections to the findings of the report of a judicial commission that had investigated the causes of Bhoja Air flight B4-213. The ill-fated flight from Karachi to Islamabad had crashed on April 20, 2012, leaving all the 127 passengers, including six members of the crew, dead.
Director general, Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and Bhoja Airline, filed this application in the already pending writ petition of Sardar Kainaf Hussain, whose son was died in the air crash. The CAA, in its application, has said that Bhoja Air was issued licence under the relevant laws, after assessing its financial capacity, infrastructure and the crew was well trained. Therefore, the commission’s observation regarding these aspects were misplaced, the CAA said.
Applicant adopted before the court that an IHC bench in July 2013 had formed a commission, headed by Justice (R) Ghulam Rabbani, with a scope to investigate seven questions that whether Bhoja Air was issued licence under the relevant laws and whether the aircraft was sound with pilot experienced or not etc. The commission after completing with the proceedings on March 12, 2014, had issued the report on September 19, 2014. That CAA fully cooperated with the commission and recorded six of its witnesses.