Since President Mamnoon Hussain has disallowed protocol for himself, Chairman Senate Raza Rabbani was not given an official welcome on his arrival in Karachi on September 17, Sindh police told the Senate Standing Committee on Rules of Procedure and Privileges on Thursday.

Yesterday, the committee had issued notices to the Sindh police, demanding an explanation for not providing protocol to the acting president when he visited Karachi on Sept 17. The notice accused the police of "breach of privilege".

Additional Inspector General Karachi Mushtaq Maher told the committee that the police did not give an official protocol to the acting president since the president had disallowed it for himself. He said that on his first visit to Karachi as president, Hussain had told the police not to make protocol arrangements for him in future.

He apologised to the committee for not giving an official welcome to the Senate chairman, and added that the director general protocol had not informed the police department of Rabbani's arrival otherwise security arrangements would have been made.

Pilots' fitness

During the committee session, Senator Farhatullah Babar raised questions over the Civil Aviation Authority's (CAA) criteria of issuing fitness certificates to pilots, accusing the department of favouritism.

He said that the Islamabad medical board had declared two pilots unfit; however, they were cleared by the Karachi medical board.

"How did two pilots, who were unfit in Islamabad, become fit in Karachi?" he asked. "This is not a small issue — it is the matter of someone's life and death."

The director general of CAA requested for more time as he was not prepared enough to give a briefing on the matter. The committee agreed and demanded that the aviation department submit the criteria that is followed to judge the fitness of pilots in the next meeting.

The senators added that if they found the medical standards to be inadequate, the committee will prepare recommendations for amendments.