ISLAMBABAD: State Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Sheikh Aftab Ahmed on Thursday informed the Senate that 82 per cent work on new Islamabad International Airport had already been completed and it would be ready by December this year.
Responding to various questions during question hours, the minister said cost of the project escalated due to land acquisition for its extension. He added the scheduled time of its completion was 2014, but now it would be completed by December this year.
The ministers said its original PC-I cost in 2008 was Rs 36.865 billion but later its cost was revised up to Rs 81.171 billion. To another question, he said so far, Pakistan Airways has not started its operation/flights, as it is in infancy stage. Moreover, It has also not yet been decided whether Pakistan Airways would purchase new aircraft or lease them as no new aircraft are presently available in the market in at least a year’s time.
He said it is expected that whenever Pakistan Airways will be launched and it will have aircrafts acquired on lease. The minister said no staff has been hired for the said airline, however, the process of hiring of HR including, Airhostesses, In-Flight Service Manager, Project Director, Manager Finance, Manager Sales, Manager IT & Manager Contracts has been initiated on fast track basis.
Replying to another question, Sheikh Aftab said no increase has been made in the regional and provincial quota as allocated on the basis of population census figures of 1998. However, he added, on the proposal of government of Balochistan to reduce the disparity among the people of Balochistan and to secure adequate representation in the Service of Pakistan, the provincial share of Balochistan has been enhanced from 3.5 percent to 6 percent with the approval of Federal Government through Inter Provincial Coordination Committee and Council of Common Interest.
To a separate question said the provincial quota was observed during recruitment in federal government departments. Giving the break-up, he said 7.5 per cent was for open merit, 50 per cent for Punjab and Islamabad, 19 per cent for Sindh, 11.7 per cent for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa while 4 per cent for Gilgit Baltistan, FATA and 2 per cent for AJK.
To a supplementary question, the minister said the government fixed airfares for Hajj rather than the Airlines. He said dynamics of Hajj and Umrah are different, adding this year in order to transfer the benefit of reduction in fuel prices to common person, Government has finalized air fare for Hajj-2016 which is around 4 percent less than that of airfare of Hajj-2015.
He added it is around 8 percent less than that of proposed airfare of PIACL for Hajj 2016. He said it is pertinent to mention here that all the designated operators including PIA uplifting Hujjaj during 2016 will charge, already decided airfare from Hujjaj.
He said variation in Umrah fare depends upon market forces i.e. demand and supply. However, this year-2016 PIA has reduced its Umrah fare up to 17.8 percent as compared to last year-2015. The average Umrah airfare was Rs 39,100/- which is now reduced to Rs 32,150 in 2016, he added.
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