Reports of seven air crashes to be tabled tomorrow, NA told

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Aviation Ghulam Sarwar Khan on Monday sought two more days for presentation of the preliminary inquiry report of the last month’s crash of the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) aircraft near Karachi airport before the National Assembly, as the members continued to take part in the general debate on the federal budget during more than 10-hour-long dull proceedings.

The aviation minister, who had earlier committed to present the preliminary report of the last month’s crash of the Lahore-Karachi PIA flight (PK-8303) before the National Assembly on June 22, told the house that the report was ready, but he wanted to present it with the reports of six other previous plane crashes that took place after the year 2010.

Ninety-seven passengers and crewmembers of PIA’s A320 aircraft were killed in the crash on May 22. A teenage girl on ground, who suffered injuries, also died later.

Mr Khan said he had promised that the government would also release the inquiry reports of the previous plane crashes, including Airblue and Bhoja Air tragedies in Islamabad, Havelian aircraft crash and emergency landing of a plane at Gilgit airport.

Backbenchers take part in 10-hour-long budget debate

“It will take one or two days and I will present all the reports after compiling them together on Wednesday (tomorrow),” he announced.

Later, talking to Dawn, the aviation minister said he had had a meeting with Prime Minister Imran Khan earlier in the day and discussed with him the provisional inquiry report of the PIA plane crash. “I discussed the provisional report on the PIA plane crash with the PM in addition to other plane crashes in Pakistan since 2010,” the minister said, adding that they wanted to include some more points in the reports and, therefore, they decided to delay the presentation of the report for a couple of days.

The government had formed the investigation team, headed by Air Commodore Usman Ghani, who is president of the Aircraft Accident Investigation Board (AAIB), to probe the incident and present a preliminary report within a month.

Some private TV channels aired news about the contents of the inquiry report containing flight radar altitude, runway inspection video images, speed and ROD profile data and other technical details. The report claims that poor ATC control played a major role in the accident. It was a question of safety in the airspace that the ATC was controlling and that is why it became a concern for the ATC. “A separate investigation must be undertaken to investigate as to why there is a lapse by the CAA in overseeing safety practices and procedures in civil aviation of Pakistan which is repeatedly resulting in fatal accidents,” says the report that was denied by the aviation division.

A spokesman for the Aviation Division, Abdul Sattar Khokhar, “disowned” the news reports, stating that “no such report has been issued by the Aviation Division and it was not from any authentic source.

Budget debate

Mostly the backbenchers and the third-cadre members of the parties took part in the budget debate on Monday.

The members delivered routine speeches, with treasury members terming the budget the most “balanced and excellent” one presented by the government in the most difficult times amid pandemic, and the opposition calling it “anti-people” and a recipe for disaster.

The house was run for 10 hours and 24 minutes despite the repeated announcements by Speaker Asad Qaiser at the start of the session that the sitting would not last more than three hours as part of the standard operating procedure (SOP) against Covid-19. The previous two sittings had also lasted more than six hours in an effort to complete 40-hour debate as per understanding of the government and the opposition.

A number of opposition members while criticising the economic policies of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government and its handling of the coronavirus called for resignation of Prime Minister Khan. Almost all the opposition members castigated the government for not releasing development funds for their constituencies, terming it a step to avenge the people for not voting for the PTI.

The treasury members blamed the previous governments responsible for the present state of economy and accused the past rulers of plundering the national exchequer through corruption. The opposition lawmakers said the PM was in the habit of “begging”, as he had first collected funds for cancer hospital, then for organising party public meetings and sit-ins and even after coming into power, he had started collecting money for dams and coronavirus.

Responding to the opposition’s criticism, the treasury members said Mr Khan had been collecting money not for his family or for setting up his industries, but for the people of Pakistan.

The PTI legislators from Karachi lashed out at the Sindh government, alleging that the province had been ruled by the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) for more than 12 years, but the people of the country’s largest city did not have basic facilities of water, health, education and electricity.

The lawmakers from the country’s tribal areas and Balochistan expressed their concern over less allocations for various projects in their areas.

PPP lawmaker Hina Rabbani Khar said Mr Khan was a great cricketer, but as prime minister he had given nothing to celebrate.

Criticising government’s foreign policy, the former foreign minister said India bagged 184 votes out of 192 in the election of UN Security Council, which belied the claim of the rulers that India had been left isolated in the world due to its effective foreign policy.

Dr Ibadullah Khan of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) regretted that the affairs of the government were being run by the non-elected people. He alleged the aviation minister was powerless, as the issues of his ministry regarding the repatriation of the overseas Pakistanis were being handled by National Security Adviser Moeed Yousuf and Special Assistant to PM Zulfiqar Abbas Bukhari.

In his hard-hitting speech, the PML-N legislator further said the prime minister was warning that flour would be smuggled out of the country. “Are you the prime minister or an informer? Why don’t you take action?” he asked.

Abdul Qadir Patel of the PPP while defending his party’s government in Sindh said the country had suffered not because of the policies of the previous governments, but because of the Afghan war, Gen Zia’s martial law, non-party based elections, Gen Musharraf’s coup, “1992 World Cup” and the 2018 general elections.

Mr Patel alleged that 7,000 sea sailors had been missing as no one in the Ministry of Ports and Shipping were aware of their whereabouts.

An independent lawmaker from Gwadar sitting on the treasury benches, Aslam Bhootani, highlighted the issues faced by students in Balochistan due to coronavirus outbreak, saying that no online classes were being conducted in the province. He regretted that the projects for Balochistan had been part of the Public Sector Development Programme over the years, but there was nothing on ground.

PTI lawmaker Zain Qureshi said the opposition had not given any positive recommendation during their budget speeches. He said the world was following the ‘smart’ lockdown policy of Mr Khan while the opposition was just doing politics on the budget.

Meanwhile, the National Assembly unanimously passed a resolution that the words “Khatamun Nabiyeen” should always be written and called with the name of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him).