Reference reports in media about administrative and financial collapse of national airline because of gross mismanagement, fudging balance sheet and corruption by successive politically appointed senior executives.
In 1971 when an incompetent management wanted to slash PIA routes and fleet, Z A Bhutto appointed Rafique Saigol with an assurance of no political interference. When Saigol handed over PIA to Nur Khan, it was already on the path of recovery and very soon it became profitable, expanding its routes, fleet and network. All this was possible because recruitments were made on merit, and there was no political interference.
Unfortunately, when Ziaul Haq took over, PIA’s profitability and success became its biggest liability, with government appointing incompetent cronies to key management positions and at major foreign hubs. It was under Zia that first major mega corruption scam took place when new DC-10-30s were swapped with old Boeing 747 through a broker, Page Avjet, in a deal that Canadian Pacific stood to gain by over $20 million, while PIA was sole loser. Thereafter has followed a series of scams in every aircraft induction, procurement of technical spares, appointments of GSA/GHA, Sabre deal etc, with not a single instance of accountability. Just like the Three Witches in Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Musharraf junta, followed by Zardari government and most recently the one-year status quo by Nawaz regime, have contributed their share into this witches’ cauldron and today PIA is technically insolvent.
Every government has abused PIA and used it as a tool to benefit political cronies, with most recent major damage inflicted from 2008 to 2012, when high school dropouts with controversial backgrounds and a history of financial and administrative scams against them, were appointed at the helm. It was expected from PM Nawaz Sharif to set things right, arrest decline, take tough decisions, but instead he opted for status quo by appointing yet another controversial Canadian national to head ministry of aviation, with almost same team in charge of PIA who was responsible for its downfall for the past two decades.
ALI MALIK TARIQ
Lahore
Looks like the author is rather disgruntled and believes nothing good happened to PIA after the early 70s!
Great piece, Mr Malik. You have hit the nail on its head. Our very own mard-e-momin, mard-e-haq appointed his brother-in-law, Air Cmdr Salim as General Manager PIA New York. Contrary to amir-ul-momeen's perception of 'piety', this johnny was mostly drunk, ran PIA NYC like his personal empire, hired his lady friends as Managers in NYC with no experience of an airline and ruled unchecked. He immediately ran away when his god father's plane crashed. The point that I am trying to make is that if a man of mard-e-momin's integrity could screw PIA, then one can imagine what other ordinary mortals like Benazir, Sharif, Musharaf, Shokat Aziz, Zardari & now again Sharif would be doing to this national asset of Pakistan.
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