Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar Monday hinted at selling assets of the Shaheen Air for payment of dues to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), and also sought details of the property owned by the airline.
“Why not sell all of Shaheen Air’s property to recover the amount?” the chief justice remarked. “How the employees who have not received their salaries are getting by … we want to know what assets the airline owns,” he said, and summoned the airline’s chief executive officer.
The chief justice was heading a three-judge bench hearing the case pertaining to a long-drawn dispute between both organisations regarding the airline’s non-payment of Rs 1.5 billion to the aviation authority.
During the hearing, the chief justice remarked that the CAA and Shaheen Air officials are ‘colluding to make a mess of things’. He asked CAA Director General Hassan Baig how much was payable to the aviation body by the airline, to which the CAA DG responded that it has yet to pay an amount of Rs 1.34 billion. “Recovering dues is your job,” the chief justice remarked, adding, “It seems as though you have colluded to make a mess of things.”
“Where is the Shaheen Air chief executive officer?” the CJP asked. Baig responded that he is out of the country, to which the chief justice remarked, “You drove him out of the country. You all are involved in this together.”
The CAA had partially suspended Shaheen Air’s international flight operations in July 2018 due to the non-payment of its dues.
Published in Daily Times, December 4th 2018.
