Pakistan’s CAA makes baggage-wrapping mandatory at airports

Islamabad: Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) watchdog has ordered all air travellers to have their checked baggage shrink-wrapped.

Shahrukh Nusrat, director general of CAA said Sunday it was being done for “safety” purposes.

Passengers would have to pay 50 rupees (about US$0.31) per bag for the wrapping, Nusrat said in a statement.

“For this purpose, new plastic-wrapping machines are being installed on an urgent basis,” he added.

Critics said it had been introduced to enrich a certain company tasked with doing the wrapping.

“What is the logic for this requirement …if this isn´t legalized corruption,” one angry traveller tweeted.

Asif Nawaz Shah, another social media critic, called the new policy a “corrupt profit-making endeavour”.

Others suggested the quantity of plastic that would be needed was wasteful.

“Why is the #CAA destroying the #environment,” tweeted Ayesha Tammy Haq, a lawyer and journalist.