Staff Reporter
Lahore
Civil Aviation Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan on Thursday rejected all rumours regarding his resignation and said that no one should be held accountable for the ill-fated Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) plane crash till the inquiry in the matter is completed by the concerned investigation committees.
While addressing a press conference in Lahore, the minister said that neither was he asked to resign nor had he made such an offer, adding that nobody’s fault or negligence has been identified yet.
The federal minister said that on the directives of Prime Minister Imran Khan, he has been visiting the families of all those killed in the plane crash.
He said that of the eight deceased crew members, the bodies of seven have been handed over to their heirs.
Sarwar said that the aircraft’s voice box and data box has been handed over to the French probe team sent by Airbus for further investigations and hopefully, within a week, the team would brief the ministry on the initial findings.
He said that the full report of the plane crash might take four to six months. The provisional report, however, would be made public by June 2.
“We are striving for a transparent, fair and impartial inquiry regarding the regretful incident,” said the aviation minister.
Speaking about the compensation given to the victims’ families, Sarwar said about Rs1 million have been allotted for the bereaved families of the passengers, cabin crew and technicians.
“Three maids were critically burnt and endured serious injures in the incident. One of them, unfortunately passed away. Compensations have also been allotted for the injured and deceased residents of the crash site,” he said.
The minister went on to add that for the time being, the affected families have been provided accommodation at the PIA hotel.
