She had sought court's direction to the concerned authorities to investigate the affairs of the PIA to identify corruption, mismanagement, inefficiencies, etc. Director HR department of the PIA informed the bench about financial position of the airline. As per financial statement, the airline has taken a $1 billion loan. He also told the court that the number of PIA employees was around 20,000.
The bench inquired about the number of appointments in PIA made through a 'chit' system. The Director HR tried to avoid giving a straight answer. During the course of proceedings, Babar Kamal, Director Engineering Department of PIA, apprised the court that only 3 percent staff inducted on merit, while the majority of workers in the airline were recruited on the basis of urban and rural quotas.
The Chief Justice remarked that people in all the departments - from catering to flight operations - had been employed on recommendations of influential people. The PIA official said that on an average 450 staff working on each plane, while in other airlines, the ratio was 150 to 200 employees against one plane. Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed observed that overhead expenditures were relatively higher in PIA than in other airlines.
The Chief Justice said that hardly 20 to 22 aircraft were operating, while 75 percent of the aircraft of the entire fleet were on unscheduled grounding. However, the director engineering said that out of 38 planes, nine were on unscheduled grounding. During the course of proceedings, Marvi Memon told the bench that she had filed a petition as passengers' rights were being violated under Article 9, 14, 15, 18 and 25 of the constitution. Later, hearing of the case was adjourned till December 14.