Minister for Aviation, Ghulam Sarwar Khan has said that the initial inquiry report about the recent PIA plane crash incident in Karachi will be made public by the 22nd of this month.
Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, he said that a four-member inquiry board is probing the tragic incident. He said a detailed probe report will be made public in four to six months.
He said that the government has compensated bereaved families of martyred passengers, with one million rupees compensation per family. He said that people with damaged property due to plane crash will also be compensated.
He rejected all rumours regarding his resignation and said that no one should be held accountable for the ill-fated Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) plane crash till the inquiry in the matter is completed by the concerned investigation committees.
The minister said that neither was he asked to resign nor had he made such an offer, adding that nobody’s fault or negligence has been identified yet.
The federal minister said that on the directives of Prime Minister Imran Khan, he has been visiting the families of all those killed in the plane crash.
He said that of the eight deceased crew members, the bodies of seven have been handed over to their heirs.
Sarwar said that the aircraft’s voice box and data box have been handed over to the French probe team sent by Airbus for further investigations and hopefully, within a week, the team would brief the ministry on the initial findings.
“We are striving for a transparent, fair and impartial inquiry regarding the regretful incident,” said the aviation minister.
Stressing that maximum facilitation is being provided to the victims’ families, the aviation minister stated that the brother of deceased pilot Sajjad Gul, who came from London for his brother’s funeral, was given a ticket by PIA “in line with our standard operating procedures and directives from the Premier to facilitate the victims of PIA plane crash”.
The minister also discussed the repatriation of Pakistanis stranded abroad due to coronavirus and international travel restrictions imposed across the world. He said that the operation to bring back 34,000 Pakistanis stranded abroad will continue till June 10.
“After June 10, we will take the provinces into confidence and decide the next course of action,” he said, adding that about 100,000 Pakistanis stranded abroad have applied for repatriation in their respective embassies.
