Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Thursday directed the Privatisation Ministry and Civil Aviation Division to start the transparent privatisation of PIA keeping in view formalities and guidelines of the courts.
Experts believe that the government would have to pay another Rs 200 billion to pay loans and losses suffered by the Pakistan International Airlines.
The main opposition party, the Pakistan People’s Party has announced to oppose any such move. The PIA union, People’s Unity, has also announced to oppose the move.
Chairing a meeting at the Prime Minister’s Office, Nawaz gave the nod to privatise 26 percent shares through an “open and transparent” manner. He hoped that the privatisation would not only help the people benefit from a qualitatively better service but the overall image of the national flag carrier would also get a boost nationally and internationally.
He said that the government was fully committed to reforming and restructuring all ailing state enterprises, including the PIA, and directed the management of the airline to focus on their operational efficiency, cut down their wasteful expenses and promote qualified professionals for meeting the modern day competitive environment in the air transport industry.
Earlier, Nawaz while reviewing the performance of the PIA expressed concern over mismanagement and observed that the airline has not come up to the expectations of the people.
Nawaz was also briefed about the problems and issues confronting the PIA which included its declining service standards, lack of reliability and punctuality, pilferage and theft, lack of quality manpower, training and job rotation, ageing fleet, overstaffing and high loans resulting in high finance cost.
The prime minister directed the management of the PIA to cut down on their losses in the short-term to make it a viable entity for privatisation. He also directed that all policy decisions to revitalise the organisation would be made by its board of governors. He ordered to ensure transparency in the decision-making process so that public interest remains safeguarded.
The meeting was attended by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, Information Minister Pervez Rashid and Petroleum Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi.
