Editorial

PIA: time to call ‘Time’

So bad is the current crisis that PIA is eating itself alive

Editorial January 26, 2017

a file photo of pakistan international airlines 039 s 777 240 er aircraft photo pia

A file photo of Pakistan International Airlines's 777-240(ER) aircraft. PHOTO: PIA

The state and fate of the national carrier, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), has been the subject of frequent comment in these columns over the years. Maintaining a sense of optimism regarding the future of this bloated shibboleth has proved increasingly difficult; and more than once observers have predicted that the end of the road was in sight for PIA — but it was not to be and the airline staggered from crisis to crisis. Yet again it appears that an end is in sight as the Aviation Division has revealed that the debt burden has forced the airline to the brink of default — a financial event that is notable for its lack of options future-wise other than bankruptcy.

So bad is the current crisis that PIA is eating itself alive, literally eating the duties and taxes that are collected from ticket sales or deducted from the salaries of employees — who must be perplexed at finding themselves co-opted into bailing out the sinking airline. The state of PIA has reportedly ‘annoyed’ finance minister Ishaq Dar, though the news can hardly come as a surprise to him and if it did then he does not have his eye on an important ball.

The Aviation Division is looking for Rs24.94 billion to shore up loan installments and mark-up between January and June this year. This cannot — must not — continue. The formation of yet another set of committees to ‘solve’ the myriad problems is just kicking them into the long grass, an excuse not to take hard decisions. No matter that PIA had a ‘better’ year in 2016, no matter that it is inducting two new aircraft and no matter that the management is promising better days to come — no matter all of that. It is time for the federal government to call ‘Time’ on PIA because the quack-doctoring has not worked — again. It is going to be bloody, painful and politically embarrassing but enough really is enough. Pull the plug.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 27^th, 2017.

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COMMENTS (2)

Farooq Khan | 7 years ago | Reply Cancers like PIA, Pak Steel Mills , Wapda and Pak Railways are better surgically removed or they will render the body paralysed.

jayshah | 7 years ago | Reply I agree. Pull the plug. However, if the jobs of the staff are an issue of concern, the government could consider: Immediately shutting down PIA operations worldwide Forming PIAC as a holding company of PIA Transferring all the staff to PIAC PIAC to also takes on the debt burden of PIA Free of these liabilities, sell PIA in an international bidding with the proviso that the new owners will meet all staffing requirements by re-hiring requisite staff from the rolls of PIAC for the first 5 years From the sale proceeds of PIA and government bale-outs (That are no longer increasing by the year), PIAC undertakes to start paying back the PIA debt burden, using staff it has taken on in new investment ventures like importing fast breeder tree technology and growing these to harvest for lumber, setting up factories to produced piped irrigation systems that the government encourages departments and land owners to switch to from open drain irrigation to save evaporation losses in view of the upcoming water shortages etc. etc.

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