Minister for Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage Pervaiz Rashid said on Thursday that the government had adopted a multi-dimensional strategy to make the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) a profitable organisation.
Talking to reporters after inaugurating a five-day international books exhibition here, the minister said some elements in the PIA wanted a clash and used force to make the protest demonstration successful.
The minister said that the paramilitary Rangers was already investigating the killing of two PIA employees during the protest on February 2 (Tuesday), adding that the killers would soon be held and punished.
To a question, Rashid said Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan had wasted one-and-a-half years of the nation in protests and bad-mouthed every national institution while standing on the container. Khan should now be held accountable for wasting the nation’s precious time, he added.
The minister said that the PIA’s privatisation was included in the manifesto of the PTI and Imran Khan would privatise the institution when he came into power.
Rashid further said that the Essential Services Maintenance Act, 1952, had been enacted during the tenure of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, but when it was imposed by the incumbent government to save the institution from losses it was criticised.
He recalled that when the motorway was being constructed, the then PML-N government was also criticised, and vowed that the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz would remove all the hurdles in the development of country.
The minister also claimed that PIA flights were operating as per routine.
Earlier, Rashid took round of the book fair, where over 300 national and international books on history, literature, politics, fiction and children literature were displayed at different stalls.