The
PIA scandal reported by Newspaper Al-Watan: Even bribes
are mentioned
PIA Scandal
Leaves 20,000 Stranded in Jeddah as Chairman Gets an Extension
By
M A Siddiqui
KARACHI,
November 19: Monumental mismanagement by PIA has led to a major
humiliation for Pakistan in Saudi Arabia where more than 20,000
Pakistani pilgrims have been stranded, penniless and clueless
after performing Umra, because PIA has bungled big time in their
return flights.
But instead of getting fired for the huge scandal, PIA Chairman
Choudhry Ahmed Saeed has been talking about an Eid Gift he says
he has received from General Pervez Musharraf: Permission to stay
on his job till March 2005 instead of going home by December 2004.
PIA
normally carries over 50,000 passengers for Umra in the holy month
of Ramadan every year and this year the numbers were even higher.
The Saudi Government, according to officials, issued more than
200,000 Umra visas for Pakistanis this year.
“Of
these 140,000 passengers traveled to Jeddah on Saudi, Emirates
and Qatar Airlines. The rest 60,000 booked themselves on PIA,
although the cost of a PIA ticket was much higher, almost the
same as that for London (Rs 39,000 or US$ 650),” one official
told the South Asia Tribune.
“There
was not a single complaint of any kind by any of the 140,000 pilgrims
who used the other airlines as they were sent with confirmed bookings
to Jeddah and returned on schedule. “PIA
sent most of them without return confirmations and this was deliberately
done by corrupt top managers,” the officials said.
With
60,000 tickets sold, PIA arranged for almost 125 flights from
Pakistan to Jeddah but the whole operation was so clumsily handled
that while these passengers were taken to Saudi Arabia, no return
flights were scheduled, although PIA has new aircraft standing
idle at their airports.
What would normally be a simple
logistics operation turned into a nightmare for the pilgrims and
a jackpot for PIA managers. If 125 flights were needed to carry
60,000 passengers from Pakistan, a similar number was needed to
bring them back. But PIA did not schedule more than 50 return
flights and this caused a huge backlog. Passengers were asked
to get their return booking “reconfirmed” 72 hours
before their flights and since there were no planes, those who
were ready to pay an under-the-counter bribe were accommodated
first. A mad rush started.
In
this stampede, PIA managers sold confirmed seats for Saudi Riyals
100 to 300 each. This fact was reported by many passengers.
The
scandal hit the headlines not only in Pakistan but even in the
usually indifferent Saudi Press as the Royal Kingdom ordered an
inquiry against PIA and its travel agents after it had to provide
boarding and lodging facilities for those on the streets in dire
need.
Instead of accepting the responsibility for his incompetence and
sharing or minimizing the trouble caused to thousands who traveled
on PIA, its Chairman has shamelessly denied all responsibility
and has even blamed the Saudis for issuing more visas than he
expected.
In a statement on Wednesday, Nov 17, Chairman Saeed said: "The
accusations against PIA regarding mismanagement are not true.
In fact, PIA had no idea that visas would be issued till last
moment. Maximum possible flights have been arranged to airlift
Umra pilgrims to Pakistan."
According to a report on Nov 18 in the Saudi Gazette,
a leading English language newspaper: “The situation reached
a head this week when PIA and some Umra agents allegedly abandoned
1,200 Pakistani Umra pilgrims after failing to provide them with
bookings on their planes. The Arabic language Al Watan
reported that 12,000 persons were stuck in Mecca Al-Mukarrama
alone (see image above). Al Watan also said 200 Riyals
were being illegally charged from desperate passengers for confirmation
of their return flight.
“The
(Saudi) Ministry of Hajj then stepped in to provide them with
accommodations and logistics while waiting for the problem to
be solved. The ministry is said to intend to reprimand some local
Umra companies for the glitch, and is reported to have spoken
to Saudi Airlines to take actions against Pakistani airlines,”
the Gazette said.
Okaz, the Arabic language daily newspaper, reported that
Issa Rawwas, the ministry official responsible for Umra affairs,
said it is difficult to provide bookings for pilgrims since all
the airlines are fully booked. Okaz reported that many
people outside airline offices had nothing to eat and had become
ill. “They are old, illiterate and are inexperienced in
travel and visiting Saudi Arabia,” the report said.
Arab News, another leading English daily newspaper reported:
“Yesterday the entire area where the PIA office is located,
off Madina Road, was full of angry passengers and their relatives,
arguing with the airlines staff. The PIA building resembled a
crowded train station.
“While
some passengers waited their turn patiently, others squatted on
any available space. Some slept on the floor inside the office.
Women and children camped outside the premises. Similar scenes
are being witnessed at PIA offices in Mecca and Madina every day.
The rush at PIA’s Mecca office resulted in a stampede on
Tuesday. However, no one was injured.”
Pakistani TV channel GEO said that Pakistanis gathered
outside the PIA office in Jeddah to protest the airline’s
failure to confirm their tickets. Most of them have already spent
the money they had and have been forced to overstay in Saudi Arabia
due to mismanagement by PIA officials.
The Saudi government, according to
the TV channel, has taken serious notice of the situation and
ordered an investigation into the matter.
GEO
quoted Pakistani Federal Minister for Religious Affairs, Ejaz
ul Haq saying that the PIA was to blame for the situation. “PIA
should have made proper arrangements to avoid the present situation.
It was a commercial operation and PIA should have dealt with it
accordingly,” said Mr Haq.
Faced
with criticism from within the Government, Chairman Saeed ordered
what he called a “high level enquiry to investigate and
look into the causes resulting in recent congestion of PIA passengers
in Saudi Arabia.”
The
two-member enquiry committee comprising Wasim Bari, Director Administration
and Col (Retd) Ahsan Siddiqui, Director Airport Services left
for Jeddah on Thursday (Nov 18) afternoon, a PIA press statement
said. Three days were given to the Committee to give a report.
But this was more for a cover up than acknowledgment of the mistake.
PIA insiders told the South Asia Tribune the Director
Airport Services, Col. Ahsan, who had been rushed to Jeddah for
the inquiry was actually in Jeddah on 27th of Ramadan and had
returned to Karachi without doing anything for the stranded passengers,
knowing fully well that the situation was getting serious.
Col Ahsan, one source said, had actually
gone to escort a British lady friend in Jeddah who had come to
meet him from London via Karachi. Col Ahsan sent his friend back
and rushed to Karachi although large crowds of desperate Pakistanis
were already protesting in PIA offices in Jeddah, Mecca and Madina.
The
other member of the Committee, cricketer Wasim Bari, who had been
showered with favors by Chairman Saeed in the last many years,
was not expected to blame the management for any of the lapses.
Bari was made a PIA Director out of turn and had been given the
critical job of Director Administration because he was Saeed’s
blue eyed boy.
Back in Pakistan defending himself and the PIA, Chairman Ahmed
Saeed tried to cover up the massive foul up by blaming the large
number of pilgrims. “The airline had transported 62,000
pilgrims to the holy land this year as compared to 28,000 last
year,” he told the TV Channel ARY. But this was
a wrong statement as PIA has been traditionally carrying more
than 50,000 passengers every year for many years.
Yet
the Chairman claimed that within one week all of those stranded
would be airlifted and brought back. “The operation to airlift
20,000 stranded Pakistani pilgrims will be completed within a
week. The accusations on PIA regarding mismanagement were erroneous.
Maximum possible flights had been arranged to airlift the pilgrims,”
he told the ARY.
Giving reasons for the mess in Jeddah
he said the pilgrims wanted to spend the night of Ramadan 27 at
Mecca despite confirmation of their tickets and wanted to return
two days ahead of Eid. Elderly and poor people who can no longer
afford to live in Jeddah would be brought back first, he said.
A
PIA official, Samina Pervez, said about 40,000 pilgrims had already
been brought back to Pakistan. A total of 75 flights (24 regular
and 51 special) were busy in bringing back the stranded pilgrims,
she added. Tour operators had also made the situation worse by
offering two and three day Umra packages, a PIA official said.
All these assurances and claims did
not explain why these arrangements were not made in the first
place when PIA knew that it was carrying 60,000 passengers to
Jeddah and will have to bring them back in an organized timely
manner.
The
gross mismanagement at the top has now blown right into the face
of the top management. But Chairman Saeed, who was expected to
quit by December 31, 2004 is not going away anywhere soon.
On Eid day in Lahore he told his
close circle of friends General Pervez Musharraf had given him
the Eid gift by extending his tenure until end of March 2005,
giving him enough time to finalize the PIA balance sheet for 2004.
“The
creative accounting that he has been doing in recent years would
have been exposed by the new management, had Saeed quit before
the 2004 accounts were finalized. Now he will have the time to
order all the right adjustments,” a former PIA Managing
Director said.
The
Balance Sheet is not the only remaining item on Saeed’s
agenda. He is also feverishly preparing to buy 8 new Dash-8 aircraft
for PIA from Bombardier, a deal which many experts say is neither
desirable nor viable.
The irony is that Saeed has sold
the idea to General Musharraf that these planes are needed for
PIA to run on loss making domestic routes. Not only this, Saeed
has also compelled the Government to agree to dish out a huge
Rs 330 million subsidy every year to run these new aircraft.
“It
is a double whammy for Saeed before he quits the job. He will
buy the planes at the price he wants, with built-in kickbacks
and he will not be responsible for running these planes at a profit.
Islamabad will pick up the bill, every year,” said an insider.
