By IANS
Islamabad : Flag carrier Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has been stopped from removing its female cabin crew pending a suitability assessment report on them and a Supreme Court verdict on the issue.
In a chamber hearing Thursday, newly-appointed Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar restrained the airline from firing the female cabin crew after Sheikh Riazul Haq, representing the airhostesses, said his clients were facing threats of removal from their jobs.
Deputy Attorney General Nahida Mehboob Ellahi informed the chief justice that the case could not be proceeded with in the absence of a suitability report on retirement age of female cabin staff and that the PIA had failed to submit this on the due date of Oct 31.
PIA counsel Chaudhry Arshad assured the chief justice that the report would be filed by Dec 31, the next date of hearing, Dawn reported Friday.
A Supreme Court bench had in an order passed before the Nov 3 emergency restrained PIA from fixing the retirement age of airhostesses at 35 till the final disposal of an appeal against a judgment of the Sindh High Court.
The entire 19-member Supreme Court bench, including then chief justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, was sacked after the emergency declaration and a new set of judges was sworn in.
The court order had come after some female cabin crew had approached Chaudhry and complained that the PIA administration had asked them to go on forced leave on “biased and absolutely meaningless” reasons such as dull and poor appearance, scars on the face, gaps in their front teeth and the age factor.
In a three-page application signed by 98 cabin crew, Chaudhry was requested to direct the airline to withdraw the insulting remarks as well as the letters of forced retirement.
The application said the female staff had to sacrifice a lot by being away from their families for long durations and had to perform their duty at night and at odd hours.
Instead of being appreciated, they were being victimised by terming them dull and old, they said.
“These remarks are inhuman as the age factor is a natural phenomenon and nobody could expect that the female cabin staff would be young forever,” the application said.
They also accused the PIA administration of recruiting women from Japan, Thailand, Kenya, Russia and Greece by offering them a monthly remuneration of $5,000 (Pakistani Rs.306,000) compared to Rs.15,000-20,000 being given to the local women staff.