High court directs CAA to file comments on plea seeking investigation of plane crash

The Sindh High Court (SHC) has directed the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) and others to file comments on a petition seeking a judicial inquiry into the Pakistan International Airlines flight PK-661 crash in which 42 passengers and crew, including singer-turned preacher Junaid Jamshed and his wife, lost their lives.

The petitioner, Syed Iqbal Kazmi, submitted in his petition that an Islamabad-bound flight of the national flag carrier had crashed after it took off from Chitral on December 7, 2016. He submitted that the CAA director-general (DG) had sent a letter to his high-ups in which startling disclosures were made about the functioning of ATR planes.

The petitioner said 20 incidents were recorded wherein the engines of the ATR planes used by the national flag carrier had stopped during flights. Besides, 90 cases of ATR planes’ removal of engines were recorded as well.

He argued that after the occurrence of such incidents in the past, it was the constitutional obligation of the cabinet division secretary, the CAA DG and the PIA chairman to refrain from purchasing outdated planes, using them and risking the lives of passengers and crew. He alleged that the respondents violated the Article 9 of the Constitution as well as the civil aviation rules.

Kazmi pleaded to the SHC to conduct a judicial inquiry into the PK-661 plane crash to fix the responsibility on the officials responsible for it, prosecute them and order compensation of the legal heirs of the victims of the crash. He requested the court to direct the respondents to ground all the planes currently being used by the national flag carrier and order their inspection by the CAA or any other independent investigating agency or department.

A division bench of the SHC headed by Justice Mohammad Ali Mazhar directed the CAA and other respondents to file comments on the petition by April 11 and adjourned the hearing.