Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has assured the opposition of withdrawing all the administrative actions against national airline’s employees by tomorrow.
While addressing the joint House today called to discuss different bills including Pakistan International Airline (PIA) Conversion Bill 2016, Dar said that the committee has made amendments in the bill with consensus.
He pointed out that the government could pass the bill with majority but it chose to sort out the issue with negotiations.
Minister for Law and Justice Zahid Hamid said that the bill accommodates genuine demands of the opposition and rights of company’s employees would be protected.
Hamid proposed reports of a ten-member committee on “The Pakistan International Airlines Corporation (Conversion) Bill, 2016”, “The Emigration (Amendment) Bill, 2014”, “The Civil Servants (Amendment) Bill, 2014”, “The Anti-Rape Laws (Criminal Laws Amendment) Bill, 2015” and “The Privatization Commission (Second Amendment) Bill, 2015”.
Parliament’s joint session chaired by NA Speaker Ayaz Sadiq is underway and the government is likely to present at least six bills including one aiming to curb honour killings.
Earlier before the joint session formally began, Pakistan People’s Party’s (PPP) parliamentary committee convened a meeting in the National Assembly (NA) and extended support to the government over privatization of the national airline with a condition of stagnation of any action against workers who had protested against the government.
PPP’s meeting was also attended by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) members.
Earlier on April 6, Ishaq Dar had stated in a meeting of the joint parliamentary committee that it was not under committee’s jurisdiction to withdraw the cases.
The meeting aimed at reaching a consensus of the government and the opposition in the PTI privatization dispute.
The meeting was presided over by Zahid Hamid. The bill was given green-signal after mutual consensus.
It was decided in the meeting that 49 percent shares of PIA would be sold while 51 percent would remain with the government. Likewise, the administrative control of the institution will not be handed over to the shareholders.
The management of PIA will remain with the Board of Governors however representation within the Board of Governors will be given in accordance with the percentage of shares. It was decided in the meeting that the conversion would not affect salaries and pensions of the employees and that the assets of the institution would not be sold.
The main purpose of converting PIA into a limited company is to attract strategic partners. The committee had presented its report before the Parliament on Thursday.
Earlier this year, employees of the national airline had launched massive protests across the country while all domestic and international flights remained grounded for over a week.
In a clash between security personnel and the employees near Karachi’s Jinnah terminal, two persons were killed.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan had joined the protesters against the government. While Pakistan People’s Party had also sided with them demanding the government to not devoid workers of their rights.
