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US Asks Pakistan To Withdraw Bearded Airline Crew
By Aamir Latif,
IOL Pakistan correspondent
KARACHI, Feb. 7 (IslamOnline) - The U.S. State Department has asked the state-owned Pakistan International Airline (PIA) to remove the bearded crew staff from its America-bound flights as, it contends, the presence of bearded staff gets the passengers onboard scared, a top PIA official confirmed to IslamOnline Thursday.
The PIA authorities and the foreign ministry received an official "request" a few days ago, the official said. Pakistan’s Defense Secretary, Lt. General Rtd Hamid Nawaz Khan who is also the Chairman of PIA, has asked the Managing Director of the national flag carrier Ahmed Saeed to consult the other senior airline officials and submit his comments on the US “request” within next three days, the official said.
Reportedly, three bearded PIA crew officials had been arrested at New York Airport last month. However, they were released after a few hours. The US authorities did not mention any specific reason for their arrest saying they (crew staff) were arrested on a misunderstanding.
The arrested crewmembers later told their officers that they had been arrested for having a beard, the official said.
U.S. immigration officials had also stopped a bearded colonel of the Pakistani army, Ashfaq Hussein, who is the author of various books, in December 2001 at New York airport for two hours. Despite the fact that Colonel Ashfaq had shown his service documents and endorsement from the U.S. embassy in Islamabad, immigration officials only cleared him after two-hour long investigation.
In the “request”, the State Department claims that the presence of bearded crew staff not merely got the passengers onboard scared, but also “confuse” the immigration and airport staff.
Therefore, in order to avoid any misunderstanding or unpleasant situation, the bearded staff should not be appointed on America-bound flights, the “request” added.
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