Recently an incident grabbed everyone’s attention when some of the passengers were harassed by customs (ASF and ANF) officials at the airport, prompting the Senate Committee to raise concerns.
The Senate committee, while talking about the survival of PIA in the aviation industry, emphasized the need to upgrade the business on Air India Model.
During the meeting, senators discussed various issues faced by the aviation sector in Pakistan.
CAA DG Khaqan Murtaza stated, ”There is a communication gap between ASF, ANF, and Customs personnel”. Khaqan accused ASF, ANF, and Custom staff of harassing and blackmailing the passengers and ransoming money from them. This mismanagement is the main reason for harassment.
According to Murtaza, the lack of coordinated effort by the ASF, ANF, and Customs staff resulted in joint search counters being disabled. He also emphasized that CAA can only provide goods and services but ASF, ANF, and Customs were responsible for creating a proper mechanism.
He continued his statement by giving an example that scanners were already installed at the airport; however, ASF and ANF staff did not sit at the counter.
“Joint search counters are inactive due to non-cooperation among agencies. People are taken to a side and threatened with either missing the flight or going to jail. Even if nothing was found, the passenger has to pay money to leave,” he mentioned.
The FIA director also stated that cases of employees having fake degrees should be sent to the interior minister. The FIA DG will attend the next meeting.
