Welcome to Pakistan's CAA: employees 'sacrifice' goat to get rid off DG civil aviation

KARACHI: Imagine what length employees of any organization could go to press demand for a resignation of any high-up? Read this: The staffers of the Civil Aviation Authority set a bizarre precedent on Monday when they sacrificed a goat, literally they did!, to ‘get rid’ of the director general of the CAA from ruling the roost.

The CAA employees sacrificed a goat in Karachi and prayed for the termination of the director general CAA from his position.

They didn’t just sacrifice the goats and left. Comes next a unsettling announcement from the malcontents, “We will continue sacrificing goats every day until DG CAA is removed from his post.”

Later after the slaughtering of the goat, a special prayer was also offered seeking ‘protection of the CAA and getting rid of the director general’.

Remember sacrifice of goat by the PIA?

This weird tradition of sacrificing a goat perhaps traces back to a precedent that was set by the Pakistan International Airlines in December 2016 when the airline management sacrificed goat before flying an ATR plane to ‘ward off’ any untoward happening.

Sacrifice of the goat was given at Islamabad airport on behalf of the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) on December 18, 2016.

And the goat was slaughtered moments before the jet took off for first time after shakedown tests. The ‘ritual’ took place before Multan-bound flight left the Islamabad airport.

The PIA had grounded all of its 10 ATR aircrafts after the Civil Aviation Authority ordered shakedown tests of the planes.

The directions came after an ATR aircraft reportedly caught fire while on runway of Multan Airport before taking off, a week before that slaughtering.