Karachi, March 27 (IANS) Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) chairperson Tariq Kirmani has resigned, a move apparently prompted by the European Union decision to ban all but seven aircraft of the airline to Europe on grounds of safety.
Kirmani told his colleagues that he had sent in his resignation to Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz. A Pakistan Online report said late Monday night that the resignation had been accepted.
The names of former Union Bank president Shaukat Tareen, Defence Secretary Lt Gen (retd) Tariq Waseem Ghazi and Air Marshal Chaudhry Arshad were on top of the list for the post, the Daily Times said.
PIA, the state-owned national carrier, has been sick and the government has been unable to garner funds for its running.
Despite heavy lobbying, Pakistan could not prevent the EU ban that has hit PIA badly, also affecting its trans-Atlantic operations.
There was speculation in the Pakistan media that the EU had imposed a ban to pressurise PIA to place orders with the Airbus of Europe for aircraft it intended to purchase from Boeing, the US firm.
Media reports said the PIA might just do that to "appease" EU.
Besides being cash-strapped, PIA has also faced "aviation safety" problems emanating from apprehensions in the West about flying to and from Pakistan, seen as a hub of international terrorism.
It has also faced staff agitations in the process of its modernisation programme. A protest by engineers resulted in delays in flights for about a week.
Older air hostesses and other crew challenged their "forced grounding" by the airline before the Supreme Court, which issued notice to Kirmani and eventually directed him to restore the crew on the flights.