Pakistan International Airlines’ (PIA) woes deepen as the organisation faces an acute financial crisis which resulted in salary cheques of employees bouncing due to non-availability of funds in the national airline’s bank accounts.
A report said PIA did not even have money for purchasing fuel. Furthermore, the airline’s planes including Boeing 777 and 147 which were sent abroad for maintenance could not be brought back after repairs due to shortage of funds.
On one hand PIA does not have enough funds to pay salaries to its employees but on the other hand vehicles worth billions of rupees were purchased for its officers, though full payment was not made for these luxury cars owing to the fiscal crunch, revealed the report.
PIA spokesman Sultan Hussain Shah termed the allegation of non-payment of salaries to staff as baseless and stated that no cheque issued by PIA had been rejected. He added that salaries and allowances are being paid to employees on the 30th of each month. Shah said rumours that only $16000 remained in PIA’s foreign currency account were far from the truth. “As a matter of fact, more than three million dollars are in the account,” he said. He further stated that provident funds of the employees were safe and there is no truth in allegations stating that amounts have been withdrawn from the account. “No one can withdraw the said amount for it belongs to the employees,” said Shah.
Accepting that PIA’s financial health was not solid, Shah said the situation had not deteriorated to the point where the organisation could not pay salaries to its employees.
“The payment to daily wagers is made by the contractors and PIA has nothing to do with it. If a cheque from these contractors bounced somewhere, PIA cannot be held responsible for it,” the spokesman added.