This is with reference to a news item published in Pakistan Today on 7 February saying that the MD Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has prepared restructuring plan for the PIA to overcome the losses and turn PIA in to a profitable organisation. In the restructuring plan the PIA is planning to purchase 40 aircrafts during the next five years.
MD PIA told Senate Committee that he did not require funding from the government, but the restructuring plan should be approved and he would turn PIA into profit. What is preventing the government not to accept the offer of the present management and give them a chance or in default face music?
At the same time, the defence minister admitted in the Senate that PIA was in bad shape and his resignation would not improve the situation. He further said that the present management was paying huge amount in interest on loans taken by previous military government. He acknowledged that alone in the engineering department 4000 employees are surplus.
Their salaries alone should be in the range of Rs 8 crore per month and if you include medical and other fringe benefits it would end up somewhere 12 crore per month.
PIA’s losses should not be seen in isolation, major airlines of the world are suffering huge losses and are closing down or reducing their fleet due to increase in fuel prices.
The major cause of loss is also attributable to undue interference from the union and the pilots. As rightly pointed out by minister of defence that when the ministry wanted to sign an agreement with the Turkish Airline, the issue was politicised.
Under the circumstances when every action of the management is opposed by vested interests, even angels won’t be able to rescue the airline.
To get results the management has to be given freehand without any political interference with a set timeframe for improvement, and if the results are not achieved they should be taken to task. We cannot afford to pump more money in PIA and keep incurring losses. It would be fair to approve restructuring plan of PIA without any delay with strict monitoring. There is no harm in giving them a chance.
LT COL (Retd) MUKHTAR AHMED BUTT
Karachi