PESHAWAR: Employees of Shaheen Air International (SAI) have appealed to the chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) to take notice of nonpayment of their salaries and other allowances for the last four months by the management.

Speaking at a press conference at Peshawar Press Club on Saturday, the employees headed by Captain Faisal Naseem Gul alleged that SAI chairman Kashif Sehbai and chief executive officer Ahsan Sehbalhad already returned the aircrafts to the relevant company and left the country to avoid wrath of the workers.

Expressing his concern over the closure of airlines operations, Mr Gul said that it was the second largest airlines after PIA with 18 aircrafts and it did good business with passengers growth of up to about 22 per cent.

He claimed that non-professional attitude and manipulation of its financial resources by the chairman and his brother CEO led to the closure, but the Federal Board of Revenue and Civil AviationAuthority were also responsible for downfall of the airlines.

He added that the airlines management never took it seriously to pay salaries to the workers timely and preferred to hire services of technical people on credit.

`The management had started stashing the earnings of SAI abroad in order to avoid clearing government dues and salaries to its employees,` Mr Gul alleged and added that SAI had stopped its operation between July and September 2018 where the dues further swelled.

He said that there were approximately 4,000 to 5,000 employees working in SAI who met the acting CEO Javed Sehbal for their salaries and allowances, but to no avail.

They demanded of Prime Minister Imran Khan to take action against the SAI chairman and CEO and bring them back to Pakistan to clear their dues.

Earlier, the employees, including airhostess, pilots and other technical staff, staged a protest demonstration near the cantonment railway station.

They were holding placards and banners inscribed with their demands and slogans against the SAI management.