PIAC Conversion Act ensures legal protection to all PIA employees

All employees of the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) have been ensured full legal protection under the PIAC (Conversion) Act 2016 which was unanimously passed on April 11, 2016, by the Parliament. The Privatisation Commission (PC) will therefore like to clarify the misperception created by a ‘stranger’ who attended the Senate Standing Committee on Finance on April 21, 2016, and his misleading views were reported in some parts of the media.

During the said meeting, the ‘stranger’ had claimed that the Act puts the PIA employees in a disadvantaged situation both in terms of legal rights and employment and pointed out a clause in the Act claiming that through this clause, the government had withdrawn civil service protection previously available to the employees.

The Privatisation Commission would like to clarify that all the PIA employees enjoy the same legal protection under the PIAC (Conversion) Act, 2016, which they were enjoying under the repealed PIAC Act, 1956. The status of the PIA employees was not of a ‘civil servant’ under the repealed PIAC Act 1956, and therefore is no question of withdrawal of any legal protection.

Furthermore, the Parliamentary Committee of the Joint Sitting of Parliament on Bills had carefully deliberated and reviewed the provisions of the PIAC (Conversion) Act 2016 including provisions of Subsection (6) Section 3 of the Bill which fully protects interests of the PIA employees and ensures the employees same legal status which they were enjoying previously. The PIAC Act 2016 was subsequently passed unanimously by the Joint Session of Parliament and thereby reflects the complete consensus within the Parliament on the matter.

The PC would also like to emphasise that during the meeting that the PC secretary had objected to the statements made by this person terming them to be factually and legally incorrect and also misleading the Senate Committee members on the subject. Furthermore, the PC secretary also emphasised that the person could not legally participate in the meeting as he was neither a senator nor a government official. This stranger was furthermore challenging the collective wisdom and unanimous decision of the legislators on the PIAC (Conversion) Act 2016. The concerns raised by the PC secretary were endorsed by the Senate Committee members.