Enter: Pakistan Airways Limited

The government’s habit of springing surprises on an unsuspecting public continues as it registered Pakistan Airways Limited (PAL) as a new company with an authorised capital of Rs100 billion, with various stakeholders looking on in utter dismay and confusion. The announcement was made over the weekend by a PIA spokesperson who said the company was registered as a subsidiary of the national carrier. However, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan has stated that the company has been incorporated as a new entity. The question here is why the Privatisation Commission was kept in the dark over this, since PIA is on the list of companies that await privatisation. The government has decided to steamroll the national carrier into privatisation without taking all stakeholders on board or having a meaningful discussion or debate on the matter.

There is no doubt that the PML-N’s task of privatising PIA is a hard one, as inviting interest towards a debt-ridden airline is going to be a tall order. But if the matter is to simply put up an airline — free of liabilities and incorporated as a separate, fresh entity — for sale, then why the secrecy surrounding the matter? Admittedly, debate in parliament is not always a meaningful affair, and arguments presented by the opposition are sometimes politically motivated, with there being little substance to them, but is this the democratic government promised to the public when elections were held?

The reason behind forming the new company seems simple: “a new airline with the mandate to carry on and operate air transport service or any flight by aircraft for transport of passengers’ goods of all kinds and cargo for commercial or other purposes and to carry out all forms of aerial work”. This is precisely what PIA does right now. Hence, the message is clear — the government will put up PAL up for sale, while keeping the liabilities and assets of PIA’s holding company with it, at least for the time being. With such unpredictable policies and a habit of going back and forth, what guarantee is there that the new airline will be run free from bureaucratic control and government intervention? With the PML-N’s unpredictability, stakeholders will keep room for every possibility.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 24^th, 2016.

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