KARACHI - The Pakistan Airlines Pilots Association (PALPA) on Monday categorically announced that it will not accept the recently announced pay raise by the PIA management if contract pilots are not regularised. On one hand, they bound us to distribute Rs226 million among the Palpa members only, while on the other hand, contract of more than 80 pilots clearly mentions that they could not be entitled to the pay raise announced for regular employees, said Palpa Vice President Capt Suhail Baluch while addressing a press conference here at the PALPA headquarters on Monday. He declared that the Palpa is not going for any Go Slow or By the Book as the airline cannot afford such flight disruptions. What happened in April last was the result of inept handling of flight schedules. The inefficient management blames pilots for flight disruption whereas it is only because the pilots who are already overworked refuse to take extra flight for being a potential safety risk, he pointed out. Capt Baloch said that pilots, according to the PIA rules and regulations, should be given double the flight time rest and at least 12 hours notice. This rule will be followed and observed in letter and spirit thus no favour in this regard will be extended to the management. However, the Palpa team as per our routine is ready to help the management to plan rosters efficiently to abide by the safety rules of the airline itself, he elaborated. While showing copies of MOU and contract of the pilots, the Palpa vice president said that the anomaly was pointed out to the management which assured redressal of the same but even after a week, the same was refused and deceitfully announced that Palpa walked away from talks. He said that finance issue was only a chapter of what was being negotiated with the PIA management and is probably only 20% of the whole subject while majority of the topics are related to flight safety and working conditions of the pilots. Therefore we are not going to let management run away from these negotiations rather we abstain from the financial chapter and would continue to fight for our rights (better working conditions) and flight safety as per international flight safety standards, he added. Capt Baloch said that issues like more than two (2) sectors flight with single crew at night, more than 3 sectors flight with multiple crew exceeding normal duty hours, minimum rest for the pilots before flights, need to be addressed according to international flying standards. He said that the pilots and more so the administration, should not compromise on quality of equipment, maintenance of the aircrafts and their radars or overworking the crucial human resource that could risk the aircraft safety. Capt Suhail Baluch said that the echoes of the Fokker Aircraft crash in Multan three years back are still heard in aviation circles where the pilot performed duties beyond the prescribed limits; there were technical snags in the aircraft.