Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) is embroiled in an ugly dispute with its pilots, as the strike led by the pilots’ union Pakistan Airlines Pilot Association (PALPA) continues and a number of flights keep getting delayed or cancelled. This latest mess does no favours to the depleted reputation of Pakistan’s national airline and is doubly taxing for its customers since it coincides with the post-Hajj season. PIA and the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), along with Prime Minister’s Advisor on Aviation Shujaat Azeem, have launched a public relations offensive against the striking pilots by relying on familiar tropes of national interest and public service. PIA’s executives in their addresses to the media are portraying a noble image of themselves where they are working overtime to ensure that their customers are not inconvenienced and are playing on the importance of bringing the Hajjis home. Meanwhile, the pilots and their union are predictably being caricatured as greedy entities who seek to blackmail PIA into ceding to their demands of high wages and improved perks. As a consequence, the PR battle is being won by the airline and their fellow government bodies, as calls from the effected public to fire the pilots or de-unionize them grow louder. The calculated gamble to play on the public’s emotions and obfuscate the real cause behind the strike seems to be working. It is extremely critical, however, that this mythmaking of a gallant airline striving to serve its customers to its best ability despite the greed of its employees be challenged. The tussle between PALPA and PIA has been brewing for some time and has everything to do with gross mismanagement and shortsightedness of the PIA bosses. In all the commotion, the fact that PIA repeatedly forced its pilots to violate the terms of their flight duty time limitation (FDTL) and therefore compromise on the safety of hundreds of lives goes unreported. PALPA was in the past complicit in this dangerous game, by giving PIA waivers to allow its pilots to perform overtime. However, when the CAA suspended two of PIA’s pilots for going on a PIA sanctioned flight to Riyadh from Sialkot in clear violation of the FDTL, PALPA put its foot down. PALPA has announced non-cooperation with the management of PIA until such time as the latter agrees to formally implement the Working Agreement 2013-15 between PALPA and PIA, which would prohibit such flagrant and perilous misallocation of employees. The other serious issue of conflict between the two parties is PIA’s underhanded attempts at bypassing the rules and labour laws by hiring pilots on a temporary contractual basis, thereby putting their job security at risk and making them more prone to being pressurised into violating duty time regulations. PIA has therefore no qualms about sending overworked, stressed, sleep-deprived pilots, who also happen to be fearful for their jobs, flying into the air with hundreds of passengers onboard. So when PALPA demands the firing of the Director of Flight Operations (DFO) of PIA along with its other two conditions for ending the strike, it is clear that contrary to PIA and CAA’s protestations it is not unduly using its position to influence personnel decisions. PALPA’s strike seems to have a singular theme: to improve flight safety. So it logically follows that it wants to get rid of a man under whose watch such grievous safety violations have occurred regularly. The public’s tendency to view those on strike as voracious miscreants is an unfortunate reality readily exploited by managements — public or private — to cut corners and make dangerous compromises in the fields of life and death. First it was the doctors, now it is the pilots. In both instances, the aggrieved professionals operate in highly sensitive environments and if they are not operating in the best conditions, then many lives are at stake. The public should therefore take a moment to check its instinctive response and appreciate the situation and its real facts. Pilots by the very nature of their jobs are careful and responsible people, and if they raise serious concerns over their health, safety and peace of mind, those concerns should be taken seriously. PIA and CAA have plentifully used talk of national interest to their advantage, but the only thing consistent with national interest would be to have a properly functioning airline without overtaxed pilots. PIA should not try to be too clever for its own good and should follow the rules if it wants to get out of this mess. *