Maryam Raza, a cabin crew member of Pakistan International Airlines, flew to Canada and didn’t board the return flight. She left behind a note thanking PIA. Maryan Raza is one of the several PIA staffers who have sought asylum in Canada in recent years.
A note saying, “Thank you, PIA (Pakistan International Airlines),” was found in a Toronto hotel room after a search.
An appreciation note, like this, is what a flight attendant would expect to find from a flyer after a nice and cosy flight.
However, the note saying, ‘Thank you, PIA’, was actually written by an air hostess, and not a satisfied flyer.
The note was from Maryam Raza, who worked with the PIA and had landed in Toronto on a flight from Islamabad on Monday (February 26) but didn’t report for duty on her return flight to Karachi a day later.
When authorities looking for Maryam opened her hotel room, they found her PIA uniform with the ‘Thank you, PIA’ note, reported Dawn.
Maryam Raza isn’t the lone example of a PIA crew member landing in Canada and vanishing into thin air. In fact, she was just following a trend.
Maryam’s disappearance comes just a month after PIA flight attendant Faiza Mukhtar’s disappearance in Canada in January 2024.
Faiza Mukhtar, who was rostered to fly back to Karachi a day after landing in Canada “did not board the flight and disappeared”, said PIA spokesperson Abdullah Hafeez Khan.
PIA CREW MEMBERS SEEKING CANADA ASYLUM SINCE 2018
The disappearance of Maryam marks the second such instance in 2024.
It’s probably no longer the PIA that Jacqueline Kennedy called, “Great people to fly with”, in 1962. That has become the slogan of PIA since then.
In fact, Pakistan isn’t the same Pakistan of the 60s. Surviving on loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and international doles, Pakistan has seen record brain drain in 2023. Unsure about their future in Pakistan, skilled professionals have been leaving the Islamic Republic in hordes.
The trend of Pakistani flight attendants disappearing after crewing a flight to Canada started back in 2019 and has picked up recently, according to aviation news website Simple Flying.
However, The Media Line, a ‘Mideast ‘-based news website, claims to have received information about PIA flight attendants seeking asylum in Canada and other countries as early as 2018.
7 PIA CABIN CREW MEMBERS ‘VANISHED’ IN CANADA IN 2023
Last year, 2023, at least seven flight attendants of the PIA are said to have disappeared after landing in Canada, according to media reports.
Two PIA cabin crew members, who landed in Toronto from Lahore’s Allama Iqbal International failed to report to duty for their flight back home in December 2023, according to PIA spokesperson Abdullah Hafeez Khan.
“The flight was on its scheduled return to Islamabad, the steward did not show up in Toronto. The flight of the national flag carrier had to return to Islamabad without the crew members,” said spokesperson Khan.
PIA crew members, Ayaz Qureshi, Khalid Afridi and Fida Hussain Shah reportedly slipped away after landing in Canada, in November and December 2023.
PIA BLAMES WOES ON CANADA’S ‘LIBERAL’ ASYLUM POLICY
“The reason for this [disappearance] is an overly liberal asylum and asylum programme of the Canadian government,” PIA spokesperson Abdullah Hafeez Khan told ArabNews in November 2023.
Khan said four PIA cabin crew members disappeared in the same way in 2022, while four more managed to vanish in 2023.
While the PIA officials point to Canada’s relaxed asylum norms, experts believe the low salaries of crew and lingering fear of the airline’s future, are prompting the crew members to escape after landing in Canada, rather than coming back home.
The cash-starved PIA’s privatisation was approved by Pakistan’s caretaker cabinet in February, two days before the elections in Pakistan, as a measure to revamp the loss-making airline, reported news agency PTI.