Our nation is afflicted with a severe crisis. It is one that threatens the very existence of those that inhabit this land of the pure, ironic when we call it ‘pure’. A few weeks back I read an interesting news report. Apparently the PIA has hired a PhD for the important task of killing all forms of pests including rats, cockroaches, lizards which are seen frequenting these planes. Whether, they had a pun intended here, I do not know, but I did hear the sniggering sounds of lizards, cockroaches and rats. They too laughed at the irony of it. Can the decline of national public sector institutions be attributed to cockroaches, lizards and rats, in the presence of their human infestations wreaking greater havoc to these organisations?
I came across an advertisement of the PIA from the 1960’s. Had I not read PIA on the advert with my own eyes, I could have sworn that it was any international airline company like perhaps Pan Am. It showed a smartly dressed air hostess pointing towards PIA destinations that were painted like a graffiti on the wall behind. What stood out about the advertisement was the way the national flag carrier, and Pakistan saw itself back then. For many Pakistani’s, becoming part of the national flag carrier was a dream come true. That dream, was conveniently trampled upon, crushed, violated and polluted by the cockroaches that have over the years infested the echelons of power.
At that time, PIA was the trendsetter in the airline industry. It was a time, when PIA upheld the institutional ethics that make institutions what they are. While talking to an uncle of mine, who had witnessed the meteoric rise of PIA back then, he said that a pilot back in the day, refused to wait for Khan Sabur, a minister from East Pakistan, who could not arrive the airport on time, owing to a closed railway crossing. The minister, naturally was furious but the PIA, said that the airline would not inconvenience the passengers for the sake of providing protocol to a minister. Back in the day PIA was an institution, with a spine, a spine that was reflected by the people that were at the helm of the organisation.
Unfortunately that cannot be said about the national flag carrier anymore. The time, where gifted, competent and talented leadership was managing the affairs of the PIA like an airline should be run, are long gone. The rot, that set in was swift and unforgiving as it nosedived into the depths of corruption, nepotism, inefficiency, cronyism, rank inefficiency and the lower end of mediocrity.
When one looks at the statistics, one is pleasantly surprised that PIA is still functional. After all, it has been subjected to an ‘all you can eat’ frenzy of incompetent people that have been stuffed unmercifully down the throat of the national flag carrier for political motives. PIA has the distinction of being one of the most overstaffed air line, with an employee to plane ratio almost touching 1:400. Maybe, we should hire another PhD for the cockroaches and rats that scurry the corridors of power to explain to them the law of diminishing marginal returns.
Therefore in such a setting, the cabinet committee meeting in Peshawar decided to shelf the privatisation plan for PIA, Railways and other national institutions. We’re glad that they did, for we do believe in their superhuman ability to perform miracles on public sector enterprises, even if those ‘miracles’ have the tendency to miserably backfire. What PIA needs is competent leadership, one that works to improve institutional efficiency and invests in able and capable human resource. A PIA bailout plan has also been finalised, with Rs20 billion worth of injections to be made in different phases. But without hiring another PhD to clear the rat and cockroach infestation in our public sector institutions, such bailout packages will be like giving ‘vodka to a drunk’.
The writer is News Editor, Profit. For comments and queries: [email protected]
