Fact-finding

panel to probe

Sarwar statement

Committee to estimate financial losses to PIA, national kitty occurred due to ex-aviation minister’s statement

DNA

ISLAMABAD: After a shocking statement by an ex-aviation minister in 2020 resulted in years-long suspension of the national airline’s flights to several countries, the federal government on Thursday formed a fact-finding committee to determine the motives behind Ghulam Sarwar’s “irresponsible and speculative” statement.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif chaired the federal cabinet session in Islamabad today where members deliberated on various agenda items, including Sarwar’s statement which turned out to be a disaster for the country’s aviation industry.

Sarwar, during the former Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government in 2020, had revealed that nearly a third of the licences issued to pilots were fake and was followed by another statement claiming that the qualifications of 262 pilots in the country were “dubious”.

Additionally, the cabinet approved a 25% reduction in the provincial quota in medical and dental colleges managed by the federal government.

The initiative was taken in the context of an extremely low quota for students domiciled in the Islamabad Capital Territory in provincial medical and dental colleges so that students domiciled in Islamabad could get better opportunities for education in such institutions.

The federal cabinet, on the recommendation of the Rightsizing Committee of the federal government, has approved an amendment to the Rules of Business, 1973 regarding the merger of the Ministry of Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan and the Ministry of Frontier Affairs.

The federal cabinet has ratified the decisions taken in the meeting of the Cabinet Committee on State-Owned Enterprises held on January 17, 2025.

The federal cabinet also ratified the decisions taken in the meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Legislative Cases held on December 17, 2024 regarding amendments to the Citizenship Act, 1952.