LAHORE – PIA Chairman Muhammad Ali Gardezi has created a new position of group IX in IT (Network) department to promote Saqlain Gardezi, an officer of his tribe, in violation of airlines rules, said sources in the national flag carrier on Monday. Saqlain is working as Manager IT in group XIII in PIA but after promotion he would be posted against the slot of Deputy General Manager a newly created slot. Chairman has already promoted another officer of his tribe Hamid Gardezi from special group to group IX as director flight safety. Promotion case of Hamid Gardezi was approved on October 31, 2013 and Gardezi took over the charge of his new office on next day, whereas, as per rules, pilot can only hold the office of Director Flight Operation.
In the case of Saqlain chairman by-passed the approval of Board of Directors (BoD) members and Human Resource Budget (HRB) was prepared in hurry. Sources closed to development revealed that Chairman Gardezi has passed verbal orders to Director, Human Resource (HR) to implement his decision immediately and approval from BoD would be sought later.
It is worth mentioning here that after illegal promotion and creation of new slot PIA would have to bear the extra burden of heavy salary and perks of new officer. A senior PIA officer seeking anonymity said that government wanted to pull the airline out of crisis but would this dream come true in presence of such decisions. He said that it was not the first decision of its nature but PIA history was full of such decisions. Only implementation of merit in the airline could save it from massive losses, he lamented.
