The odds really are against the striking staff of PIA. Even the comrades of the unions (yes, there is more than one) in the national airline agree that all is not well there. That drastic steps need to be taken, just not the ones that the management is taking at the moment.
What is happening at the PIA is, in some ways at least, a microcosm of the problems the country itself faces on a larger scale. Those in government, once the problem hits them in the face, start advocating certain tough but necessary decisions. Those who are not, start rallying against them. The decision to impose a reformed version of the GST would most definitely have been taken by the first finance minister of this regime, the PML(N)s Ishaq Dar; now, his party is busy making noises against it at every possible venue. Both oil prices and food prices are going up the world over and transferring those prices to the public is a step all governments, even rich ones like the US, are forced to take. Yet it becomes a populist rallying point against the government. Were the PML(N) to take over the reins of government tomorrow, they would act on these issues in a near identical manner because there just isnt another option.
Compare this to the problems at the PIA, which is being run by a former pilot himself. The fact of the matter is that it is an over-staffed organisation. And even within that bloated form, it is a top-heavy organisation. Too many chiefs, too little Indians. The organisation needs to shed a lot of dead wood. The same applies to organisations like the Railways, the KESC, the various DisCOs, etc. These public sector organisations are green pastures that have been used for political patronage for much too long. Similarly, airlines the world over are struggling to stay afloat. In such scenarios, a codeshare agreement like the one the PIA has struck with Turkish Airlines is the norm the world over. Why should PIA, struggling even at the best of times, be exempt from the laws of economics?
Counterproductively, the striking employees of PIA are drafting the debate in very binary terms for those at the helm of affairs: whether to save PIA or its employees.
