Interim inquiry report of PIA’s plane crash tried to reveal that the pilot of the ill-fated aircraft and air traffic controller (ATC) did not follow the set landing procedure that caused the tragedy and claimed lives of 97 persons on May 22, 2020. The aeroplane crashed over civilian population (in Karachi City of Pakistan) and badly destroyed 29 houses and vehicles. Now, this has been no more an open secret that out of 860 active pilots working in various airlines of the country, 262 had not appeared in the examination. About 30 percent of pilots working in Pakistan are flying aircraft with fake licenses. In short, an enquiry must be initiated to investigate how many culprits who are even not eligible for being truck or rickshaw drivers are enjoying with confidence the status of being professional pilots and more heinously the people and channel that facilitated them to reach this position.
The matter of grave concern is much deeper than this single crash incident. Firstly nepotism has been deep-rooted in our recruitment culture and consequences are quite evident. Secondly, after illicit employment has been massively exercised, there is no scrutiny of to what extend an incumbent is performing up to the mark as per the minimum requirement of that capacity. All repeated negligence has left this nation at nowhere in the list of excellence. The only dominant factor we find prevailed in our surrounding is corruption and only corruption.
This plane crash is not the last episode of outcomes from what we planted viciously in the sacred soil of this country but this crash in an alarming indication for what stringent measures we are bound to take to eradicate not only this menace of nepotism but to establish a foolproof check of the eligibility on which professionals are hired to serve the departments. This is mandatory now if we want to stop or at least minimize such fatal incidents.
What remedies are in place to address such issues are again a matter which requires extensive debate and research but a quick survey can be made to take immediate actions to save next batch of lives, which are mercilessly jeopardized if required corrections are not timely made. The first and foremost driver of nepotism is the political influence, whose function is to first hijack a department by placing some key officers of its own and then recruitment is made even massively on an iron push of political party or parties. A second most important cause of nepotism is the placement of relatives shunning the eligibility criteria for the post. Both the means are so penetrated in our system that a gigantic type crackdown is required to eliminate this black deed altogether. Question is who will initiate this mission? The apparently responsible person for this again seems a victim or beneficiary of nepotism.
The only solution to this problem is that hiring session should be transparent enough to be out-sourced to one of a nominated group of human resources companies and till the last moment, the candidate should not be informed which company’s HR personnel is going to interview him/her nor should the HR company know about the candidate to be interviewed next and this can be decided by a random selection of computer program. This can probably cause some sort of small scale revolution in our badly hit recruitment process. But again only that person who is neither a victim nor a beneficiary of this nepotism in this system can honestly initiate this process. Does a person of such sort exist here?
