LAHORE – The PIA chairman has asked the airline’s GM (General Manager) Revenue to relinquish the charge of his office over his ‘failure’ to provide Business Class seat to Senior Minister Makhdoom Amin Fahim in a Karachi-bound packed flight, sources in the national flag carrier said on Thursday.

As per details, the senior minister was travelling by PIA flight Pk-309 from Islamabad to Karachi on Wednesday at 7pm and he requested the reservation staff at 2pm for a seat in Business Class, but there was no seat available in plane The said flight was being operated by an airbus plane A-310 with the capacity of only 12 seats in Business Class and all seats were already booked, sources disclosed.
It is worth mentioning that the PIA does not overbook the seats in Business Class as is exercised in other classes. However, the reservation staff allotted seat to Makhdoom in Economy Plus Class, but it could not make him happy.
Meanwhile, the Engineering Department changed the plane at 4pm, with the new aircraft having a capacity of 18 seats in Business Class. In this way, the PIA reservation staff was in position to allot a seat to the minister in the desired class and it was issued.
“Fahim complained to PIA Chairman Rao Qamar Suleman, who was travelling in the same flight. Fahim told the chairman that he was first refused the seat in Business Class and allotted in Economy Plus; however, he received a seat in Business Class after sometime,” sources added. On the complaint of the federal minister, the chairman came into action and ordered GM Revenue Tahir Niaz to leave the charge of his office without going into any inquiry.
Suleman further asked Deputy GM Revenue (Central Reservation Control) Ehsan to take charge of the office, sources said, adding that no punitive orders were issued regarding Tahir.
The move, however, panicked the PIA officials, as they think the order without any inquiry or investigation was not fair.
A senior officer said the chairman must face political pressure which carried no weight. “It was absolutely unjust to remove a senior officer over a hollow complaint of a minister.”
When contacted, PIA Spokesman Syed Sultan Hassan said the transfer of Tahir hand not been made against a complaint of any minister and it was part of the reorganisation of the airlines.