Workers of Air League of PIA Employees stage a protest against privatisation of PIA. PHOTO: ONLINE
As spontaneous protests by Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) employees against feared sell-off of the national carrier erupted across the country on Monday, Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Aviation Shujaat Azeem has called union leaders for a meeting.
The huddle taking place in Islamabad on Tuesday (today) aims to pacify workers who fear job losses once the airline is handed over to a strategic investor. Protests were held in different cities. Staff abandoned PIA check-in counters at Karachi airport while passengers were left stranded in a plane at Islamabad airport.
“So far our protests have been unplanned,” said a leader of cabin crew employees. “But if government proceeds with its agenda, it will see an unprecedented movement. Privatisation is completely unacceptable to us.”
Employees led by union leaders are agitating against expected sale of the airline to a strategic investor. The movement intensified after the promulgation of a Presidential Ordinance last week, which changed the status of the airline into a limited company.
On the other hand, government officials and PIA management insist that the protests are uncalled for as there are no immediate plans for selling the airline.
In any case, they say, the government will continue to keep the majority stake and only hand over management control to an investor who buys a minimum of 26% shares.
Shujaat Azeem said union leaders are overreacting to the Presidential Ordinance. “As a matter of fact, PIA’s board has more liberty to take timely decisions on important matters.”
Getting approvals from the government and going through the labyrinth of bureaucracy for day-to-day matters had become a serious problem, he said.
“For instance the age-related issue of pilots is taking so long to get government approval. We are losing pilots to private airlines. But now PIA board can take a decision on the matter.”
He said PIA was in desperate need of investment along with restructuring of its legacy loans. “Unfortunately our government does not have the fiscal space to help the airline. So we would need investment from somewhere to add more planes and fix operations.”
A strategic investor with management control would also help bring in efficiency and cut costs.
“No one should fear for his or her job. We are talking about adding more aircraft and expanding network. We would have to use same pilots, cabin crew and ground staff,” Azeem said. Referring to the criticism that PIA once handed over to a private management would stop flying to socio-economic routes, he said that wouldn’t happen.
“Government wants to keep the majority stake with itself just to ensure that national and strategic interests are met.”
While PIA has seen couple of confrontations between government-backed managements and employees, unions are threatening to repeat one of the worst protests, which took place in 2011 against former Managing Director Aijaz Haroon.
More than 400 flights were cancelled backed then, forcing the government to bow down to the pressure of employees.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 8th, 2015.
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