Pens down: PIA Peshawar office closure results in loss of nearly Rs1.6m

National carrier closed across country to protest privatisation


Umer Farooq January 27, 2016
PHOTO: AFP

PESHAWAR:


The Pakistan International Airline (PIA) office in the city has lost Rs1.6 million in the last two days with its sales offices closed as part of a cross-country strike.


An official at the district office told The Express Tribune the regional office in Peshawar generates around Rs0.8 million per day. However, he added, work has come to a standstill since the office is closed and employees have been boycotting work in protest against the proposed privatisation of the national airline.

Sale of tickets

“We have completely suspended power supply to all the computers, therefore all are shut down,” Senior Sales Promotion Officer Ejaz Khan said. “[This way] ticketing agents across the district fail to access our system and the sale of tickets comes to a complete stop.” He added, “Travel agents have been calling us but the system is closed – they cannot sell PIA tickets.”



However, Ejaz said people could purchase PIA tickets from a separate set-up at Bacha Khan International Airport (BKIA) that runs independently.

Province-wide

PIA Joint Action Committee Information Secretary Seemab Afghani said the strike was being observed at all offices across the province, including those in Bannu, Swat, Chitral, Abbottabad and DI Khan. However, he added, PIA flight operations were not disturbed. He added around 700 employees at the Peshawar office have refused to work.

“We have completely shut down the [online] system; offices are closed and all the employees have come only to mark their attendance,” Afghani said. He added the strike will be called off once the government withdraws the decision.

Afghani said all employee groups, including Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz-backed Air League and Pakistan Peoples Party’s Peoples Unity, were on the same page and agreed to keep offices closed till February 1. “If the government fails to address our concerns [by then], we will close operational activities as well and PIA [flights] will not [fly] from February 2.”

On December 9, 2015, dozens of PIA employees took to the streets and protested against the privatisation of the national flag carrier. The protesters had warned of a bigger agitation against the government’s decision.

“We have joined hands as you can see all the unions, including those backed by political parties, including the ruling PML-N’s, are here and we will not allow the government to sell it [PIA] out,” chairman of the joint action committee, Kifayat Ahmad, was quoted as saying on December 9.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 28th,  2016.

COMMENTS (1)

Zilani Basha, Lahore | 8 years ago | Reply “We have joined hands" - to destroy PIA completely. Government should not yield to their blackmailing. They are the reason for PIA losses, but still threaten the government for their selfish reasons and demands. Privatization should have been done during the tenure of our military dictators, but they did not do it for their own selfish reasons.
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