KARACHI: The Lahore High Court has fixed the date of hearing on 10th November for a petition against the Chief Executive Officer, and Chief Human Resource Officer of the PIAC in the Cadet Pilots’ recruitment case.

 Omer Waheed Qureshi and three other employees of Pakistan International Airlines had filed a constitutional petition in Lahore High Court to declare the impugned act of the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Human Resource Officer of the PIAC of not issuing the interview call letters to the petitioners as illegal and unlawful, and suspend the operation of the induction process of cadet pilots, till the final outcome of the main writ petition. Secretary Aviation Division and Director General Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority are also made respondents in this case.    According to Nabeel Javed Kahloon, Advocate for the petitioners namely Adeel Akram, Adnan Khan, Shahista Manzil, and Omer Waheed Qureshi were serving in the PIA on regular basis. Chief Executive Officer PIA published an internal advertisement for the induction of Cadet Pilots in the Flight Operations Department on 18-07-2022.

 The petitioners applied for the post of Cadet Pilots, whereas the Chief Human Resource Officer of the PIAC after detailed scrutiny of the application form, issued roll numbers to the petitioners for written examination to be conducted by National Testing Service, through its Chief Executive Officer, office at National Testing Service, Islamabad on 30.08.22. Total 15 numbers of candidates appeared in the examination & after the conduct of the examination, the Chief Human Resource Officer canceled the paper as it was out of course, whereas on the other hand also declared two of the candidates successful in the examination on 01.09.22. The Chief Human Resource Officer again issued fresh roll number slips to the remaining 13 candidates along with the petitioners and conducted a fresh paper on 21.10.22.

 After the examination, 09 candidates were called for the interview by the Chief Human Resource Officer, and the petitioners were not called for the interview, without stating any reason and information him without any legal justification for 13.11.22. On query again and again, why the petitioners were not being called for the interview, the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Human Resource Officer of the PIAC refused to answer the petitioners. The petitioners were neither informed about any passing marks criteria nor any of the call letters reflecting the same; hence the impugned act of the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Human Resource Officer of the PIAC is in grave violation of the fundamental rights of the petitioners. The Chief Executive Officer and Chief Human Resource Officer of the PIAC called for the interview of their blue-eyed candidates for the reasons best known to them, whereas they also called for the interview of those two candidates, who even did not appear in the second examination conducted by them, which is not warranted under the law. They have refused to call the petitioners for the interview without any reason and legal justifications, whereas the impugned act of the respondents is in violation of the basic fundamental right of the petitioners, the lawyer for the petitioners added.

Published in The Daily National Courier, November, 09 2022

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