Ordinary People, Real Commitment
The PIA flight from Jacobabad to Karachi is usually not an event of any note. On Feb 12, 1996, PK 546, on way from Nawabshah, aborted landing at Jacobabad at 4:30 pm because of aircraft tire pressure falling “below the permissible limits”. PK 546 went back all the way to Karachi, 40 passengers on board, 40 aspirants for PK 547 waiting on the ground at Jacobabad. Noor Lashari, Manzoor Ahmad and Mahesh Kumar are ordinary people but they are respectively PIA’s District Sales Manager (DSM), CAA’s Airport Manager and PIA’s Station Manager (SM) at Jacobabad. As 4:50 p.m. passed (the PK 547’s scheduled departure), at least a dozen or so of who were not resident of Jacobabad or the surrounding area, had reason to worry, John Henry Jacob’s town is not so comfortable a place for “accidental tourists” to spend the night, at least without proper notice.
Our anxiety level was kept under leash from escalating by constant advice about what was happening from the concerned PIA personnel. While PIA’s Mahesh Kumar negotiated with PIA’s Karachi Control to send a replacement aircraft, CAA’s Airport Manager tried to contact his superiors to get “night landing” permission. Despite the fact that Jacobabad is a major PAF Base and CAA has a fine Airport terminal building, the absence of taxiway lighting, apron floodlighting and proper fire-fighting equipment makes it obligatory for PIA to seek “case by case” permission for “night landings”. Mahesh Kumar got through to PIA’s Karachi Control, who in turn got through to the concerned CAA Director and obtained the requisite clearances for the Airport Manager. That this was necessary and was not “Standard Operating Procedure” was shocking. It seems that despite having made a major civilian terminus in the very centre of Pakistan, CAA could not part with the budgeted amount required for taxiway lighting, apron floodlighting and proper fire-fighting equipment. This was eventually solved by putting Jacobabad, what to talk of the hundreds supporting the effort and their own obligation and commitment to the Airline. If Ahmad Mian Soomro, elder brother of soon-to-be NA Speaker Illahi Baksh Soomro had not been on the flight out, the flight would have been cancelled but thankfully he saw PIA’s MD Malik Nawaz Tiwana walking through the Karachi terminal (surrounded by scurrying aides) on his way back from (or to) somewhere (other than places like Jacobabad) and he managed to convince the MD to send a replacement aircraft. To their credit the (usually vilified) PIA cabin crew remained on the job and were with us when we finally landed back at Karachi at 10:30 pm the same night, four hours after the scheduled arrival, better late than never.
While commending the likes of ordinary people in the form of Noor Lashari, Manzoor Ahmed and Mahesh Kumar, who are a credit to their departments (both PIA and CAA needing credit badly), I would like to know how many times in 1996 or 1997 any of the Directors of PIA and CAA have visited Jacobabad, if ever? It needed only one visit by someone in authority to ensure that the minimum airport requirements would be met. Since Jacobabad happens to be a major terminus for the middle of Pakistan, one would expect that other than the necessary civil aviation infra-structure, for socio-economic reasons PIA and CAA would invest in (1) daily flights and (2) proper restaurant facilities. As for the two PIA pilots who walked off the job, let them stay a few nights in Jacobabad to experience what they were subjecting a lot of paying passengers to. If nothing else PALPA should have the decency of instilling that much commitment and responsibility in their members as was evidenced by those on the ground. One only hopes that big city airport employees of both PIA and CAA can emulate the type of commitment that the backwater Jacobabad boys had to offer. One only feels sorry, that because of the highlighting of their merit and competence, they will probably get into trouble with their bosses. In Pakistan, merit and commitment to jobs is usually a disqualifier. However, it is a chance one must sometimes take for the sake of the ordinary people of this country.
In his great journey to take Pakistan pell mell into the 21st century, Mian Nawaz Sharif will have to depend upon the commitment of ordinary people, their innate sense of responsibility, their inherent patriotism as well as their penchant for eastern hospitality. If he depends upon the likes of directors who are never available because of their frequent trips to London and Islamabad, other than going on the occasional Umra, this country will go nowhere. A country is only made great by ordinary people, those who do not aspire for anything but have a commitment to serve their country selflessly. These are the people the PM will need, those who will willingly follow outstanding leaders in the search for a real destiny.
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