A Disgruntled Customer Spills The Bean On The Paki National Airlines (PIA) A.K.A The Personal Taxi Of Nawaz Sharif
Unless PIA Is Privatised, It Will Continue To Hijack The Nation
Having already confirmed with Pakistan International Airline (PIA) my return flight to Karachi a few days earlier, I was feeling relaxed on the penultimate day of my lovely vacation in Nepal, but when I called the Pakistani national airline’s office in Kathmandu to re-confirm my flight, I received a surprise. According to the PIA representative, my flight had been cancelled days ago, and I was to wait another four days to fly to Karachi.
Upon entering the PIA office in Kathmandu I was met with the distinct flavour of home... the PIA office were both rude and self-righteous, as if the airliner that employed them was their private enterprise, and as if they were doing their customers a favour by serving them.
When I asked why I hadn’t been informed about the change in schedule, I was told my cell-phone hadn’t been responding.
A year or so ago, on a flight from Karachi to Lahore, our plane had been delayed for nearly two hours on the runway.
This was a lie.
Unfortunately, the incidents I experienced are far from isolated instances of the incompetence and corruption of PIA. Here’s a timeline of some of PIA’s worst offenses:
February of 2012: PIA reportedly carried two passengers on toilet seats because it had sold more tickets than it had space.
Just wondering if the two passengers were "served" meals in their private cabin
April 2013: In an extraordinary display of stupidity and pig-headedness, PIA began a character assassination campaign against a customer named Sara Zafar Malik, who along with her two children and husband, could have been left seriously ill had she consumed a fungus-ridden bun served to her by PIA.
But
Bakistan has the "best doctors in the whole world"; therefore not to worry !
November 2013: A drunken PIA pilot was arrested in the UK after ‘staggering’ around with enough alcohol in his body to intoxicate an elephant. Fifty five-year-old Captain Irfan Faiz was at four times the drink-fly limit.
The said pilot would be better off putting his application for a new job with the newly minted, Sharia Compliant (Halal !) Airlines run by the brotherly Ummah nation of Malaysia
December 2013: A PIA pilot delayed a flight from Pakistan to New York by nearly two hours, merely over a sandwich. Imagine the audacity of this employee, to put his needs so far ahead of paying customers, many of whom missed connecting flights.
Once the sandwiches arrived the pilot was allegedly happy and the flight resumed … over two hours late.”
Probably, the pilot had important relatives working up high in the
Paki food chain, therefore no one could possibly "touch" him
September 2014: A PIA flight scheduled to fly from Karachi to Islamabad was delayed by two and a half hours because the crew decided to keep hundreds of paying customers waiting for one politician. Later, when Rehman Malik (AKA 007) finally showed up, he was disgraced by passengers in dramatic footage captured on a cell phone video that went viral.
June 2015: PIA fired five cabin crew members for money laundering after they had been detained in the UK.
September 2015: A PIA employee was arrested in the UK while attempting to smuggle cell phones out of the country.
November 2015: A PIA employee was arrested in Karachi, trying to smuggle in cell phones and liquor.
November 2015: 3KG of heroin were recovered from a PIA flight to Dubai; a small fortune
.
But I thought that this "business activity" was the exclusive monopoly of the
Deep State, dating back from the days of the
Afghan Jihad
December 2015: An inquiry was launched by PIA after a pilot had broken rules by entertaining journalist Reham Khan’s request to sit in the cockpit.
Maybe, there was a
quid pro quo
December 21, 2015: PIA was fined by Dubai immigration authorities for allowing a female passenger to fly on her son’s passport in an extraordinary security lapse. In an age where terrorists use air travel to spread their agenda, this was inexcusable.
This is the latest; missing from the above list- rumours that Ganja Sharif requisitioning A WHOLE PIA PLANE, last summer as his own personal taxi to ferry his friends and relatives from North America to the Land Of The Two Holy Mosques to enjoy the wedding of his family member into the
Saudi Royal House !
Unfortunately, no company will buy a fat cow like PIA for the horse race of air travel business, unless it is allowed to trim the fat.
With fuel prices having fallen dramatically, and expected to remain low for the next few years, the time is ripe for PIA to follow the wonderful success story of Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC)’s privatisation. Of course, this can only happen if the government develops resolve in the face of blackmailing PIA employees. Until then, the name ‘PIA’ will continue to stand for ‘Please Inform Allah’.(where 72 virgins will be waiting !) :
