Having done business in several counties and finally returning to Pakistan even being helped by PM’s Office of Board of Investments, I have been very disappointed with the attitude of some of the CAA officials and the difficult process and procedures that they have created for doing business in Aviation Industry in Pakistan.
We had an Aviation policy prior to 2015, then came NAP 2015 and later NAP 2019. All of them have failed to deliver as Aviation businesses have failed to take off. I would say that policies before, we tried NAP 2015 were better as there was a little growth in the industry. Since NAP 2015 was introduced, Aviation industry took a down turn. Let’s talk a bit about NAP 2015, Shujaat Azeem, a court martialed air force officer and then advisor to PM Nawaz Shareef on Aviation (since he arranged for his earlier escape from Pakistan thru Rafiq Harriri, Ex Labanese PM), manipulated it for the benefit of his Benami handling company. He abrogated the right of Pakistani Carriers and granted open skies to foreign carriers there by getting very lucrative business of handling for his company run thru the front men. That was a huge loss for Pakistani Airlines and also prevented their growth plus deterring the new entrants.
This policy which was presented in a very colorful document also gave enormous powers to CAA in the name of freedom of operations and increased the Paid Up capital and security deposit requirements to the level that all entrepreneurs were immediately excluded from the aviation business. Companies started falling apart, even it took me about four years to recover and re establish the business that too with more investment but my passion for Aviation played the major role to continue my struggle. Now coming to NAP 2019, it’s not much different as for few the policy is implemented and for some it is not, the license issuance process has been made more stringent and businesses will not grow any further.
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We applied for an aerial works license last year and it is still under process as if it’s colonial era and Her majesty in London will approve it after determining our loyalty. Businesses have cost of doing business the each day but thousands of employees in CAA will never understand this, as they get the pay check on 1st of each month and have never understood what a customer is? In a Pandemic and Locust disaster situation where the survival of Private companies is difficult and our food security due to later is at stake, our license which is supposed to be used for Locust Spray and other economic activities is awaiting security clearances for months and no one is responsible for that since No One Killed Jessica.
Make Pakistan an economically viable state and not a police state.
Drastic steps are needed to lure the investors in Aviation Industry like re vamping and re writing the rules of business of CAA, making it easy to obtain license in 48 hours, one window operation for investors, facilitating present investors and operators as no one is happy with the attitude of various CAA people but mostly will not talk openly due to the fear of reprisal.
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