Strong protest lodged by the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) employees against proposed privatization of the airline and for raise in their salaries seems to have an impact on the airline’s management, which has called them to Islamabad for talks, reported 24NewsHD TV channel on Tuesday.

Quoting its sources, the channel reported that the PIA Chairman Aslam R. Khan had telephoned CBA Union People’s Unity President Hidayatullah Khan and invited him for talks, which would take place tomorrow.

They added that a committee, headed by the PIA chairman and consisting of two board members and HR chief, had been constituted for the purpose.

A sessions court had yesterday (on Monday) granted pre-arrest bail to as many as ten employees of the PIA in a rioting case.

People’s Unity President Hidayatullah Khan, along with several others, was booked in an FIR lodged on the complaint of the national flag carrier’s management after they staged a protest at the airline’s head office against its proposed privatisation as well as for an increase in their salaries.

After a preliminary hearing, the judge granted them interim pre-arrest bail against a surety of Rs10,000 each and issued a notice to the investigation officer.

The complainant had stated that on August 25, a mob led by Hidayatullah Khan along with Aqeel Siddiqi, Safdar Anjum, Rafiq, Mohammed Iqbal, Israr Mashwani, Shahnawaz Khatian, Ajmal Malik, Amjad, and Shoaib and 200 to 250 other employees stormed the head office, broke doors, beat up security guards, also used abusive language and threatened the officials and senior management present at the office with dire consequences.

 

Reporter: Shah Rukh Shah