Pak athletes stranded six hours as flight delay sparks controversy

Islamabad: A long-running dispute with engineers at Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has severely impacted the country's flight operations. Amid this dispute, the Pakistani athletics team, traveling to participate in the Islamic Solidarity Games, was stranded at Lahore airport for more than six hours on Friday. The team included Olympic gold medalist Arshad Nadeem and his coach Salman Butt. The athletes' team arrived at Lahore airport at 6 a.m., but instead of departing at 9:25 a.m., the PIA flight to Riyadh was delayed by more than six hours. Salman Butt stated that the delay was attributed to a "technical problem," but the actual reason was an ongoing dispute between engineers and PIA management, which is repeatedly disrupting flights. Dispute deepens within PIA management Engineers associated with SAEP have not been issuing airworthiness certificates for the past several weeks, leading to the grounding of several flights. This has led to the cancellation or disruption of a large number of flights on domestic and international routes. Engineers' dissatisfaction is over salary increases, improved facilities, and the timely availability of spare parts. Meanwhile, PIA management claims that the engineers are violating the Essential Services Act. Airline issues clarification statement PIA claims that the flight cancellations and delays are due to "schedule rationalization" and general operational reasons. However, the disruptions over the past month have made it clear that conflict with engineers is the real reason. On Friday, several flights at Lahore, Karachi, and Islamabad airports were also canceled and delayed by several hours. Privatization pressure on PIA PIA is already heavily indebted and facing financial crisis. Despite reporting a profit for the first time in 20 years this month, the government is moving forward with privatization of the airline. PIA has accused SAEP of 'trying to sabotage' its privatisation, while engineers say they are working but it is not possible to give aircraft clearance without a thorough inspection.