KARACHI: Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) Sunday partially resumed flight operations after a five-day suspension as several flights were operated on domestic and international routes.

The PIA management, faced with a complete shutdown by employees for past five days, managed to fly four flights from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and Dubai, the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The two flights PK-733 and PK 760 took around 700 passengers on-board from Jeddah to Islamabad. Likewise, two of the national flag carrier’s flights operated between Islamabad and Gilgit, the extreme north of the country, where land routes are cut off in winter amid heavy snowfall.

The passengers were stranded in Jeddah for past several days because of cancellation of the PIA flights due to the employees shutdown protest against the proposed privatisation of the PIA.

However, the Pakistan Air Lines Pilots Association (PALPA) on the weekend disassociated itself from the ongoing shutdown, though expressed their commitment with the opposition of the proposed sell off, of the PIA.

The Joint Action Committee (JAC) that is leading the employees protests at all the major airports of the country, said that the PIA compromised the safety and technical standards to fly those aircraft.

The JAC, however stuck to its guns and vowed to continue the ongoing shutdown and protest against the privatisation of the PIA.

A spokesman of the JAC said the committee would hold a rally on Monday outside the headquarters of the PIA to press their demands.

The spokesman further said that a petition had been filed in the Sindh High Court against the disappearance of the four employees, who went missing last Monday during the bloody clashes with the security forces last Tuesday, in which two of the PIA employees were gunned down and several other were injured.

The death of the two employees stirred grave concerns all across the country as it remained uncleared as to who shot the ill-fated employees. Different probe committees were formed including the one under the paramilitary Rangers.

A spokesman of the Rangers said the committee on Sunday began its inquiry. He further said the committee would call all the civilians and the Rangers soldiers who were identified in the video clips aired by many television channels, covering the protest and the violence that day.

About half a dozen journalists and cameramen also fell prey to the baton charge of the law enforcement forces. At least three media men ended up at hospitals with bone fractures.

On Saturday, the police had registered the murder case against the ministers and the top PIA officials after a district court ordered to lodge the complaint of the JAC.