PIA continues denying tickets to Chitral passengers

DAWN
Report Zar Alam Khan
ISLAMABAD: Some strong elements at the Rawalpindi office of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) continue to deny tickets to intending passengers on the Islamabad-Chitral flights, causing hardship to the people and financial loss to the national flag-carrier.
Talking to this correspondent on the phone, Chitral Tehsil Nazim Sartaj Ahmed Khan on Wednesday regretted that despite assurances by the higher authorities of PIA, no step had been taken to resolve the matter.
He said some delegates coming to Chitral to attend a seminar were denied tickets by the PIA officials in Rawalpindi saying that seats were not available. However, he expressed the surprise that most of the seats on the flight remained vacant during the last couple of days.
Chitralis living in the twin cities said the PIA officials always denied them tickets while flights were going to the valley almost empty. They said some elements in the office were cheating on the corporation and causing it huge losses while the high-ups had failed to take action against them.
The Islamabad-Chitral service was launched in May 2007 to end the communication-related problems of the people of Chitral and promote tourism in the area. However, after about six months, the operation was suspended citing unavailability of enough passengers. Later, the service was re-launched but the PIA instead of encouraging the ticket-seekers created hurdles in the smooth operation of the service.
People of Chitral living in the twin cities said PIA management had deliberately made it impossible for the passengers to get seats on the flights despite long queues of ticket seekers in its offices in Rawalpindi and Islamabad.
"Ever since the PIA started service on this route, there was a conspiracy from within the organisation itself to sabotage the service. Passengers are refused seats, while the planes are flying from Islamabad almost empty. Even chance tickets are refused to the passengers," they said. On the other hand, flights from Chitral always remained full to capacity.
When the 10,500-foot Lowari Pass closes for all types of traffic in winter due to snowfall, the people of Chitral used to travel through the lawless Kunar province of Afghanistan. However, this year the route will also remain out of bounds due to military operations in Bajaur and other areas of the province. People of Chitral have called upon the government to announce special package to end their communication problems till completion of the Lowari tunnel.