Senate committee suggests maintaining Roosevelt Hotel status until coronavirus eradicated

ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on Aviation in a meeting held Thursday recommended keeping the PIA-owned Roosevelt Hotel's status unchanged until the novel coronavirus was eradicated.

Presided over by Committee Chairperson Senator Mushahidullah Khan, the meeting was also attended by Aviation Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan and the secretary of the Aviation Division, Hassan Nasir Jamy. During the meeting, a representative of the PIA, Najeeb Kamran, briefed the committee on developments related to the Roosevelt Hotel — located in Manhattan, New York.

The national carrier took the Roosevelt Hotel on lease in 1978 and bought it later in 1999 for $36.5 million. The historic luxury hotel, the PIA officer added, was making a profit until 2019, whenceforth it did not make any profit due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Kamran added that the Roosevelt Hotel would not make any profits now as the building had become too old.

'Launched an attack'

Following the briefing, there was back and forth between PPP Senators Sherry Rehman and Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar, PTI Senators Faisal Javed, and Shaheen Khalid Butt, the committee chair, secretary Jamy, as well as the federal aviation minister Sarwar.

"You launched an attack as soon as you came," Javed said to Khokhar, to which the latter responded by saying all the questions he asked were from the briefing.

Rehman said the Roosevelt Hotel was not being sold in response to the coronavirus pandemic. It was reported in the news that US President Donald Trump wanted to buy this hotel, she added, noting that it was an attempt to sell off Pakistan's valuable properties and that she rejected it.

Aviation Secretary Jamy said the federal cabinet had abolished the task force set up to sell the hotel and that a financial adviser would be appointed to lease it out by the privatisation commission.

"We are not selling the Roosevelt Hotel," he added.

In response, Senator Mushahidullah asked what was the need to hire a financial advisor if the hotel was not being sold. "Does the coronavirus only impact the Roosevelt Hotel?

"The US president's name was mentioned in the talks related to the Roosevelt Hotel's purchase but there has been no denial [from the government," the senator noted.

Sarwar chimed in, asking in what context did Trump's name come up in this matter.

PTI's Javed said Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Overseas Pakistanis Zulfiqar Bukhari had held a press conference to deny it.

The aviation minister said PML-N leader and former foreign minister Khawaja Asif "was specially invited to the privatisation committee meeting yesterday".

"Asif told the meeting that Trump's son-in-law is interested in buying the hotel," he said. "I can tell you for sure that no one has reached out [from Trump's side] at a government level.

"The matter is under discussion but whatever happens will be done in a transparent manner. Whatever we have to do is in the wider interest of the country," Sarwar stated.

Free stay at hotel

Butt noted that the Roosevelt Hotel was not anyone's but Pakistan's property. "It may be declared a national heritage property in 2023," he mentioned.

"We have always borne losses from this property. There have been guests from here who have been staying [at the hotel] for free or at a discount.

"A senior government functionary has held some important meetings at this hotel. There will be suspicions if irrelevant people are in the committee," he noted.

"The Roosevelt Hotel has been used to 25% [of its capacity]," he added.

To which, Kamran, the PIA representative, said: "I will resign if it is proved that any single person stayed for free at the Roosevelt Hotel."

"I know many things because I have been hosting delegations there," Butt responded.

Khokhar underlined that the hotel had churned out $424 million in profits from 1997 to 2019. "If it made so much profit, why do you want to sell it," he asked.

To which the PIA officer said the property was old and needed renovation.

Rehman said: "We neither want to sell the hotel or agree to a joint venture."

In its recommendations on the matter, the standing committee then said it suggested the hotel's status remain unchanged until the coronavirus was eradicated.

"The Roosevelt Hotel should be renovated after the coronavirus [pandemic]. The Roosevelt Hotel should neither be sold nor [made part of a] joint venture," it added in its recommendation.

Dubious licenses issue

Speaking about the dubious pilot licenses issue, Javed said the "reports had to come out whether the federal minister had spoken on the subject or not".

"This is a bitter step we have to take to improve ourselves," the PTI leader added.

Secretary Jamy then responded, saying: "Kids go to the flying school after completing their FSc [degrees]. They sit for exams with the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority [PCAA] after completing 250 flight hours.

"In the 2017-18 exams, we felt that there were errors in 54 of the 300 licences. Then, we got to know that computerised tests were introduced in 2010 and the problem has been there since then.

"We decided to check all licenses issued to-date since 2010. We have suspended five individuals from our licensing branch," he explained.

Rehman asked why the PCAA chose to issue the pilots' licenses if they were not valid.

"There are many five-star pilots who are going about [looking for jobs].

"The federal minister's Parliament speech about pilots caused damage [to our image] in the world," she added.

The PTI leader responded, saying various previous governments had destroyed the PIA.

28 licenses revoked, 80 more suspended

Khokhar asked if the 262 pilots' degrees were valid, to which the secretary aviation said that was correct. "Are these 262 pilots' licenses fake," the senator asked.

"These licenses are valid," responded the official.

"Was there a problem during their verification," asked the senator, to which the official said: "Yes, that's correct."

In response to a question about commercial pilots, the official said there were 100 among the 262 highlighted.

"We are also conducting an inquiry into [those who handle] our IT system. Our inquiry team has made 54 recommendations. We have revoked the licenses of 28 pilots and suspended the licenses of 80," he added further.

Driving licenses 'also obtained without tests'

Later, while commenting on the meeting, the aviation minister said the degrees of 658 PIA employees and other staff were found to be fake. The prime minister was informed through a report that errors were found in the degrees of 262 pilots, he explained.

"In the near past, there were four accidents [and] we presented those interim reports in Parliament. It is our job to acknowledge our weaknesses and mistakes and fix them," Sarwar said.

"We didn't do it on anyone's orders. In our culture, driving licenses are also obtained without tests.

"I admitted my mistake on the floor of the House. I also said on the floor and in the press conference that licenses had flaws," the minister noted. "I'm not a lawyer. I'm a common person. I'm speaking in the court of the public."