Pakistan

War of words: Shah grills govt over PIA divestment, petrol prices

ICT Ordinance 2015 extended by four months despite opposition protests

Azam Khan February 15, 2016

PHOTO: REUTERS

ISLAMABAD: The verbal jousting between the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) continued on Monday as the latter grilled the government on its controversial Pakistan International Airlines (PIA)privatisation policy and taxes on petroleum.

Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Khursheed Shah on Monday asked the government to reconsider its policy on selling a stake in the national flag carrier.

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Shah recalled a statement by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s from the latter’s time on the opposition benches in which he had called on the PPP-led government to sell the PIA-owned Waldorf Hotel in New York.

“Why is Nawaz not doing so [selling the Waldorf] today,” Shah asked on the floor of the lower house of parliament on Monday. He went on to accuse the PML-N-led government of purchasing faulty aircraft.

Referring to PML-N’s election manifesto, the PPP leader pointed how the ruling party had pledged to uplift national institutions and make them profitable to ensure maximum returns from privatisation. The opposition leader criticised the PML-N government for its chronic privatisation mind set which had seen it sell 65 institutions in 1991. He also criticised former dictator Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf for privatising 62 institutions.

The PPP leader further demanded the government withdraw show cause notices to 165 PIA employees who were affiliated with the Peoples Union.

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Shah also took the government to task over its failure to bring down the price of petrol in proportion to its fall in the international market. He pointed out that oil was soaring at $100 per barrel during the PPP tenure from 2008-2013 but the government did not transfer it on to the public. Bbut the incumbent government, he said, had failed to bring down the price of petroleum products as oil plummeted to $25 a barrel.

“This is a welfare state not a commercial state,” Shah reminded the treasury benches.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 16^th, 2016.

COMMENTS (3)

Partisan Politics | 8 years ago | Reply "The PPP leader further demanded the government withdraw show cause notices to 165 PIA employees who were affiliated with the Peoples Union." Clearly, shows that the PPP is interested in keeping it appointees unharmed although many were probably appointed on the basis of patronage rather than on merit. There should be a bipartisan approach to get rid of the non-performing employees and give a golden handshake to those that are really not needed. PIA must be made profitable and efficient to keep it from privatization. My personal experience as frequent flyer is that there approximately twenty percent employees that are unwilling to work to their fullest but are more interested only in their "pagar."

Sodomite | 8 years ago | Reply @Pakistan: You are exactly right. Incidentally ET and Shah sahib, PIA owns Roosevelt Hotel and not Waldorf Astoria, which is owned by Hilton Hotels.

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