Monday, 2 January, 2023 I 9 Jamadi us Sani, 1444 I Rs 40.00 | Vol XIII No 184 I 44 Pages I Islamabad Edition
PIA to undergo eASA AudIt to determIne whether eu oPerAtIonS wIll reStArt profit report Daniyal ahmaD
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He european union aviation safety agency (easa) is scheduled to conduct a remote safety audit of the pakistan International airlines (pIa) and pakistan civil aviation authority caa (pcaa) on March 7. the audit will determine the airworthiness of pIa, and whether it will regain access to european airspace. the european union aviation safety agency is an agency of the european union with responsibility for civil aviation safety. It carries out certification, regulation and standardisation and also performs investigation and monitoring. a
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Market presents rs50bn avenue for pIa, allowIng It to regaIn 40pc dIp It saw
successful audit would allow pIa to restart flights to the eu, but not the uk. “easa and the uk’s department for transport are two separate bodies. both have been approached separately” says abdullah Hafeez khan, pIa’s spokesperson. “we are very confident. we have consistently cleared it,” said khan. “normally these things take weeks, but on successful audit, a team will visit to physically verify their findings,” said khan when profit asked when pIa would receive a verdict following the audit. “Market size in terms of revenue now stands at rs 50 billion plus while in terms
of percentage, we would be looking at regaining the lost 40% that we had” khan continued when profit asked how much pIa would stand to gain if the audit were to be successful. the company ended Q3cY22 with a net loss of rs25 billion which increased their accumulated net loss for the year to a total of rs 67 billion. this is a 58 per cent year-on-year increase from its accumulated loss of rs 42.7 billion over the same period last year. PIA’s current stop gap mechanism for EU bound flights pIa currently serves destinations in the european union alongside, the uk, and the usa through a code-sharing mechanism with turkish airlines. pIa fly’s passengers directly to its counterpart’s hub in Istanbul, and then to twenty-eight destinations across the aforementioned markets. the mechanism is currently a means for pIa to maintain routes it had been cordoned off from after the fake degree scandal. the arrangement was announced on october 28 with the two countries celebrating 75 years of international relations with first flight commencing on november 15, 2022. It came at the backdrop of pIa still suffering from the ramifications of its licence issue dating back to the crash of flight 8303 on 22 May 2020 after which, then federal Minister for aviation, ghulam sarwar khan alleged that 150 pilots had fake licences. this, subsequently, led to the european union aviation safety agency (easa) implementing a ban on the carrier, with the federal aviation administration (faa) in the us, and the department of transport in the uk following suit with a similar restriction.
PM Shehbaz discusses MQM-P, PPP delimitation row with Zardari LAHore/KArACHi staff report
prime Minister shehbaz sharif on sunday phoned former president asif ali Zardari and Jamiat ulema-e-Islam (JuI) chief Maulana fazlur rehman and discussed with both the leaders the overall political and economic situation. the telephonic conversation came after the ruling pakistan Muslim league-nawaz (pMl-n) decided to mediate between Muttahida Qaumi Movement pakistan (MQM-p) and pakistan people’s party (ppp) over the delimitation issue. according to sources privy to the development, MQM-pakistan has expressed serious concerns over the non-implementation of the agreement signed with the centre and the sindh government. they said the MQM-pakistan has categorically told the pMl-n that holding local body elections without new delimitations in karachi would be meaningless. the party also complained that the ppp-led sindh government had not amended the local government act. the sources revealed that senior leaders from pMl-n have contacted ppp co-chairman asif ali Zardari to convey him the reservations of MQM-p over delimitations. Meanwhile, the pM discussed with both the leaders the political sit-
uation prevailing in punjab. the three leaders agreed to convene a meeting of the coalition parties soon. It is to be noted here that governor baligur rehman had de-notified pervaiz elahi as the chief Minister of punjab for not taking the vote of confidence from the punjab assembly a few days ago. pervaiz elahi had challenged the governor’s order in the lahore High court (lHc). during the hearing of his petition, pervaiz elahi had assured the court in his undertaking that he would not dissolve the punjab assembly till the next hearing of the case. the court fixed the date of the next hearing of the case on January 11, 2023 (after the high court vacations) and got written assurance from elahi that he would not dissolve the assembly till the next hearing in lHc. outrage over bilawal’s speech Muttahida Qaumi Movement pakistan (MQM-p) convener khalid Maqbool siddiqui expressed outrage over the pakistan peoples party’s (ppp) attitude regarding the delimitations of sindh local government (lg) polls. an emergency meeting of the MQM-p rabita committee meeting was chaired by dr khalid Maqbool siddiqui in which the convener expressed outrage over the ppp’s stance over the delimitation of sindh lg polls.
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