RAWALPINDI: The Senate Standing Committee on Aviation has approved two bills to outsource the airports and improve investigation mechanism regarding aviation accidents.

The bills titled Pakistan Civil Aviation Bill, 2023 and Pakistan Air Safety Investigation Bill, 2023 were presented by Federal Minister for Aviation Khawaja Saad Rafiq.

The committee meeting, chaired by Senator Hidayatullah, reviewed the bills and approved them with amendments tabled by the members.

The minister also told the committee that PIA’s suspended flights to Europe and the UK would soon be resumed.

“We are almost done with preparations for the UK, hopefully, flights will resume in September,” he said.

In response to a question, he added the outsourcing procedure of Islamabad International Airport was carried out in accordance with the law and a foreign consultant was hired for the process. He said an advertisement will be published in the next few days inviting companies from all over the world to participate in the bidding process. Mr Rafiq claimed 21 companies from 12 countries have expressed interest in managing the airport’s operations.

Published in Dawn, Aug 2nd, 2023