Cabinet to approve replacement of 3 members today

MUSHTAQ GHUMMAN

ISLAMABAD: The federal cabinet which is scheduled to meet on Thursday (today) with Prime Minister Imran Khan in the chair will approve replacement of three members of the board of the Pakistan International Airline Corpo-ration Limited (PIACL) and grant of Additional Charge of Director General Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to Sqn. Ldr. (Retd) Shahrukh Nusrat, Secretary Aviation.

Sources told Business Recorder that the three existing members of the PIACL Farukh Khan, Navaid Malik and Muhammad Ali Tabba are proposed to be replaced with Dr Waqar Masood, Zafar Khan and Adnan Afridi respectively.

PIACL, board in its 11th Meeting held on 18th April, 2017, fixed the number of directors as ‘Eleven’. Further PIACL Board in its 12th meeting decided that one Director shall be elected by the share holders at the first AGM. Government’s participation in such an election will be to the extent of its votes after excluding the total votes which would have been sufficient to elect ten Directors as per Section 183 of Companies Ordinance 1984. In terms of Public Sector Companies (Corporate Government) Rules 2013 (3-A) a director nominated by Government shall hold office in accordance with Section 165(3) of the judgment and independence in the best interest of the Company. These functions can be translated when PIACL have competent and dynamic Directors on its Board. PIA is suffering from severe and chronic financial crisis. PIACL Board needs expertise in various fields such as management and finance to make it vibrant and profitable. In this regard, appropriate expertise in diverse fields is the need of the hour.

In view of the problems being faced by PIACL, the Government has been taking active steps for its revival and to make it a profitable entity. In order to achieve this end, following replacements are proposed in the PIACL Board.

Minister for Aviation Division has seen and authorized submission of the summary to the Cabinet.

According to a summary of Aviation Division to the Cabinet, the post of Director General Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) was vacated due to termination of the contract appointment of Air Marshal Asim Suleman (retd), vide Establishment Division Notification dated 1st   March, 2018. Subsequently,  G Hassan Baig, Senior Joint Secretary BS-21,  an officer of Secretariat Group was given the Additional Charge of Director General CAA by the Federal Government  and notified by Establishment Division vide notification dated 1st  June, 2018.

The vacant post of DG CAA was advertised on 13.03.2018. The Prime Minister constituted a Selection Board for Appointment of DG CAA. The meeting of the Selection Board headed by Abdul Razaq Dawood, Advisor on Commerce, Textile Industry and Production & Investment was held in Aviation Division on 01.11.2018. The Selection Board interviewed short-listed candidates. The Selection Board was of the unanimous view that the CAA is a commercial entity; the qualification/experience prescribed for the post of DG CAA in the advertisement only makes eligible those candidates having 20 years of aeronautical experience. Resultantly, candidates from general/commercial aviation sectors could not be considered. The selection Board accordingly decided that the post of DG CAA may be re-advertised at international level to attract talent including commercial/private sector with more qualified candidates and the same was re-advertised and the last date for submission of applications was 31st  December, 2018.

Minister for Aviation has approved the proposal for posting of Sqn. Ldr. Shahrukh Nusrat (retd), Secretary Aviation on Additional Charge basis as Director General Civil Aviation Authority for three months or till the posting of new Director General Civil Aviation Authority. The Minister for Aviation has seen the Summary and allowed to submit the same before the Cabinet. Approval of the Cabinet is solicited for the grant of Additional Charge of Director General Civil, Aviation Authority to Sqn. Ldr. Shahrukh Nusrat (retd), Secretary Aviation in addition to his own duties for a period of three month or till the posting of new Director General Civil Aviation Authority whichever is earlier.