ISLAMABAD: A Pakistan International Airlines plane crash in Karachi last month, which killed 97 people aboard, was caused by the pilots’ overconfidence and lack of focus, revealed an initial inquiry report into the incident that was unveiled in the National Assembly of Pakistan on Wednesday.
“Several warnings and alerts related to speed, landing gear and ground proximity were disregarded [by the air crew],” said the 21-page report that was shared by the country’s aviation minister, Ghulam Sarwar Khan, with his colleagues in parliament.
Shortly after the crash, critics and opposition members lambasted Prime Minister Imran Khan and his administration for its failure to improve the national flag carrier’s performance and skills of its technical staff, including pilots. The country has a spotty record of aviation safety, and it has witnessed frequent plane and helicopter crashes over the years.
The PIA Airbus A320 crashed last month in a densely populated residential neighborhood in Karachi that is situated near the Jinnah International Airport, killing all but two of the 97 people on board. The ill-fated flight PK8303 from Lahore came down about a kilometer short of the runway on its second attempt to land.
“The landing was undertaken with landing gears retracted … Both engines scrubbed the runway at various locations causing damage to both of them,” the inquiry report said.
The minister also revealed on the basis of Flight Data Recorder (FDR) and Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) that the pilots were not focused.
“The pilots were discussing the coronavirus throughout the flight. They were not focused … There was overconfidence,” Khan said.
The minister also blamed the control tower for not pointing out damage to the plane after a botched attempt at landing. “The pilots and the controller failed to follow the standard rules,” he noted.
There was no technical fault in the plane and both the pilots were medically fit to fly, the minister continued, adding that the pilot retracted the landing gears at a distance of five nautical miles from the runway even though they were extended before.
Khan said the plane was on auto-landing, but the pilot disengaged it.
Pakistan has witnessed 12 plane crash incidents since its inception in 1947, and the minister attributed the staggering statistics to the lack of merit within the organization.
“Unfortunately, the degrees of four of our pilots were found bogus while forty percent pilots have fake licenses,” he said while vowing to restructure the national airlines and take action against all those responsible for making “political appointments.”
Pakistan has 860 active pilots while 262 of them did not appear in the exam themselves, revealed the minister, adding that the accountability will be ensured.
“An inquiry has been initiated into the fake licenses of pilots,” Khan added.
PIA crash that killed 97 caused by pilots’ 'overconfidence' — preliminary report
https://arab.news/bqg5e
PIA crash that killed 97 caused by pilots’ 'overconfidence' — preliminary report
- Aviation minister says there was no technical fault in the plane and the pilots were medically fit to fly
- Shocks his listeners by telling them that 40 percent of the pilots in the country have fake licenses
Militant ‘ringleader’ among six insurgents killed in northwest Pakistan — army
- Military conducts frequent operations against militants it claims launch attacks from safe havens in Afghanistan
- Militants have intensified attacks on army and its bases since revoking ceasefire with government in late 2022
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Army said on Monday a militant “ringleader” was among six insurgents killed in two intelligence-based operations in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
In recent months, the military has launched frequent operations in the restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan. The army’s target in the area is militants it says launch attacks inside Pakistan and against the army using safe havens in Afghanistan, a charge Kabul denies.
Groups like the Pakistani Taliban, commonly known as the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), have been waging a war against the Pakistani state for nearly two decades in a bid to overthrow the government and replace it with what they consider an Islamic system of governance.
“On 20-21 April 2025, six Khwarij [militants] were sent to hell in two separate engagements in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province,” the army said in a statement.
One operation was in the South Waziristan district, where the army said militant “ringleader” Zabi Ullah was killed. The statement said he had “remained actively involved in numerous terrorist activities against security forces as well as in target killing of innocent civilians and was highly wanted by the Law Enforcement Agencies.”
Another intelligence-based operation was conducted in Razmak, North Waziristan District, in which five militants were killed.
Militants have intensified their attacks since revoking a ceasefire with the government in late 2022, with recent months witnessing significant strikes targeting the military and its bases.
Pakistani religious parties announce Gaza rally at Lahore’s Iconic Minar-e-Pakistan
- Religious parties say are forming new pro-Gaza platform called Majlis-e-Ittehad-e-Ummat
- Platform to launch nationwide awareness campaigns to boycott Israeli products and companies
ISLAMABAD: The chief of Pakistan’s main religious-political party, the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam F (JUI-F), said on Monday the JUI-F and other religious parties would stage a protest rally in solidarity with Palestinians at the iconic Minar-e-Pakistan monument in Lahore on Apr. 27.
The move follows a Gaza Solidarity March organized by another religio-political party, Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), on a main road connecting Islamabad and Rawalpindi last week that was attended by thousands.
“A very big rally will be held at Minar-e-Pakistan in Lahore on Apr. 27 along with a protest,” JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman said on Monday at a press conference in Lahore alongside JI chief Hafiz Naeem-ur-Rehman.
“We all will participate along with other religious parties. We are forming a new platform now by the name of Majlis-e-Ittehad-e-Ummat.”
He also said nationwide awareness campaigns would be launched by the platform to boycott Israeli products.
Separately, the JI has announced a nationwide strike on Apr. 26 in solidarity with Palestine and urged citizens to boycott brands that support Israel amid its ongoing military offensive in Gaza.
Pakistan does not maintain diplomatic relations with Israel and has for decades condemned its military actions in Gaza.
Islamabad has called for the immediate resumption of humanitarian aid to the besieged enclave and a revival of negotiations toward a two-state solution. The country has long supported the establishment of an independent Palestinian state based on pre-1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Since October 7, 2023, when Israel launched its latest military assault on Gaza, more than 51,000 Palestinians have been killed and over 116,000 injured.
Free ambulance service in southern Pakistan delivers babies, and hope, onboard
- Nearly 100 babies successfully delivered inside Sindh Integrated Emergency and Health Services ambulances this year
- As per UN report, Pakistan was among four countries that accounted for nearly half of all maternal deaths worldwide in 2023
MAKLI, Sindh: Earlier this month close to the crack of dawn, a free ambulance service in southern Pakistan received a call that a 26-year-old woman from a remote village in Thatta had gone into labor without a health facility nearby for miles.
Within minutes of receiving the call, a Sindh Integrated Emergency and Health Services (SIEHS) ambulance staffed with health workers trained in emergency obstetric care sped off toward Shabeera Bibi’s location in the Sindh province. The paramedics stabilized her and left with her for the nearest health center but realized soon that there just wasn’t enough time to reach the facility.
With her husband’s consent, Shabeera’s baby boy was delivered in the moving ambulance, one of 100 babies born in an SIEHS ambulance in this year alone.
“I was in a lot of pain when I was about to deliver, the baby’s condition was also at risk and my water had broken,” Bibi recalled, sitting on a charpoy back at home in her mud home in Hussain Notiar village.
In her arms, she held her newborn son Fayyaz.
“I am simply grateful to Allah for saving my baby and my life, and that my baby is still with me today.”
Pakistan’s Sindh province is the second most populated province of the country where 30 percent of women receive no prenatal care, 60 percent do not give birth in a health facility, and the maternal mortality ratio is thrice the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 3 target.
As per a recent United Nations report, Pakistan was among four countries that accounted for nearly half of all maternal deaths worldwide in 2023. The situation is dire in rural districts such as Thatta, where the health infrastructure is shoddy and few skilled birth attendants are available.
Set up in 2021, SIEHS, which runs as a public-private partnership, wants to fill the gap, with its ambulances, called ‘HOPE,’ providing free and round-the-clock assistance to people in Sindh though the 1122 helpline.
“Our job is to respond to emergencies,” Farheen Haider, an emergency Mmedical technician (EMT) at SIEHS, told Arab News. “When it’s a delivery case, we respond immediately. If the situation is more critical, we try to manage the patient on the way.”
Since its establishment, SIEHS has delivered 400 babies in ambulances across Sindh, with the mothers surviving in all cases, Haider added.
Shabeera’s was one such case in which paramedics worked in the confined space of the ambulance, performing the delivery and administering immediate postnatal care, including carrying out an APGAR scoring to gauge the health of the baby, as well as cleaning the mother and baby and cutting the umbilical cord.
The baby’s grandmother, Haseena Bibi, recalled the ordeal the woman went through that day.
“We are very poor and we couldn’t reach the hospital … we were very worried and then the girl [Shabeera] said that she couldn’t bear it anymore,” Haseena said.
She said the ambulance arrived quickly and Shabeera gave birth on the way.
Around 600 HOPE ambulances are operating in various districts of Sindh, Wazeer Ahmed, SIEHS regional manager told Arab News.
One of the main objectives of the service, he explained, was to move expecting women to hospitals:
“But if there are complications or the baby is about to be delivered, we take permission from the parents or the husband and proceed with the delivery inside the ambulance.”
Pakistan says Saudi Arabia has granted additional 10,000 slots for private Hajj scheme
- Nearly 90,000 Pakistanis are expected to perform Hajj pilgrimage under government scheme
- Around 23,620 Pakistani were to perform Hajj through private scheme before new slots added
ISLAMABAD: Religious Affairs Minister Sardar Muhammad Yousaf said on Monday Saudi Arabia had granted Pakistan an additional 10,000 slots for Hajj pilgrims traveling under the private scheme.
The annual Islamic pilgrimage is expected to take place this year in June. Pakistan and Saudi Arabia signed the Hajj Agreement 2025 in January, under which Pakistan was given a quota of 179,210 for the pilgrimage to be divided equally between government and private schemes.
Nearly 90,000 Pakistanis are expected to travel to Saudi Arabia under the government scheme this year and 23,620 Pakistani were to perform Hajj through private tour operators, which means that over 60,000 slots from the total quota had remained unfilled.
“We have been allowed 10,000 more in the quota, this is not government but private quota,” Yousaf told reporters.
The development has not yet been confirmed by Saudi authorities.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has constituted a three-member inquiry committee to probe why Pakistan had failed to use the full 179,210 quota for Hajj 2025.
Hajj flight operations will begin from Apr. 29 with the first flight departing from Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore.
While a precise number for Hajj 2025 is difficult to determine in advance, projections suggest it will be a record-breaking year, with over 2.5 million pilgrims expected.
Confident Peshawar Zalmi face Karachi Kings in PSL X clash tonight
- Zalmi last week defeated Multan Sultans by a record-breaking 120 runs
- Islamabad United beat Karachi Kings by six wickets on Sunday night
ISLAMABAD: A confident Peshawar Zalmi squad, led by skipper Babar Azam, will lock horns with Karachi Kings in the Pakistan Super League (PSL) X clash in the southern port city of Karachi tonight.
Zalmi will head into the match with their heads high after registering a record 120-run win over former champions Multan Sultans last week. The “Yellow Storm,” courtesy of impressive contributions from Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Hussain Talat, Abdul Samad and a fiery spell from young pacer Ali Raza, beat Multan to register their first win of this year’s PSL.
Karachi Kings are placed at the number three spot in the PSL points table. They have had a mixed tournament so far, winning two matches and losing two so far. The Kings had a horrible outing on Sunday, losing their PSL fixture to table-toppers Islamabad United who beat them by six wickets after scoring a modest 128/7 from their 20 overs.
“From the capital to the City of Lights, Zalmi on the move,” the franchise wrote on Instagram, showing a video of skipper Azam arriving in Karachi with his players.
Zalmi are placed at number five on the PSL points table, with only two points under their belt in the tournament so far. The Yellow Storm lost their opening two matches before registering a record win over Multan.
Former Pakistan captain Azam and explosive hitter Saim Ayub are expected to open for the squad while in Cadmore, Mohammad Haris, Samad and Hussain Talat, Zalmi have plenty of batting firepower to dismantle any bowling line-up.
Spinner Arif Yaqoob and Raza were instrumental in Peshawar’s win over Multan last week, returning figures of 3/20 and 4/21 from their four overs respectively.
The match is scheduled to begin at 8:00 p.m. Pakistan Standard Time.
