Ahsan Iqbal. PHOTO: EXPRESS/ZAFAR ASLAM
Federal minister for planning and development warned Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) of dire consequences including ‘privatisation’ if it failed to improve its services.
Ahsan Iqbal stated this on his return from China at the Benazir International Airport where he was witness to chaos and mismanagement leading passengers to complain about the services of the national carrier.
Iqbal said that while waiting at the customs he saw officials giving VIP protocols. “Being a minister if I can stand in the queue then why VIP protocol to some people,” he questioned rhetorically.
He said that he would take the matter up with the authorities concerned and urge them to take action against acts of sheer negligence. “Everyone knows that PIA is one of the country’s overstaffed organisations, but there is no service,” he pointed out.
“We cannot allow a few thousand PIA employees to hold passengers hostage. We have to seriously think over some options, including privatisation of the airline to improve its service standard,” he said.
Talking to The Express Tribune Iqbal added that PIA had become a welfare organisation only for its employees, whereas the passengers faced problems due to its deteriorating standards. “I have warned them to either improve their services or be ready to face other options,” said Iqbal, adding that employees of the national carrier and their families enjoyed many privileges including free tickets but their contribution in terms of providing better services has been disappointing.
“PIA management should take initiative to improve its service standard to bring it at par with other international airlines”.
PIA, incurring a loss of billions of rupees every year, faces criticism from all quarters for its falling service standards despite receiving a huge chunk of funds from the national exchequer and ranking among one of the overstaffed organisations.
The federal minister said the government will no more tolerate the humiliating attitude of the PIA staff meted out to passengers or below par services provided during travel time. He took note of the luggage of passengers, arriving from Skardu and Karachi, being misplaced.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 8th, 2013.
COMMENTS (32)
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Discounted Travel and Free Travel are two different things! That said, weather minister has short memory or not, Government must not and should no run any business like PIA. It is a business and should be run by those who can make money out of it! Privitization will bring a major layoff of any one who cant contribue. Sorry but this has to happen, Government cant keep feedings people and their families. They need to either work or let go, period and it will only happen if some one who wants to make profit will run a company.
Airline all over the world offer free and discounted travel to their employees and dependants,its nothing unique to PIA..Perhaps u have never seen the way employees travel.They normally travel on jump seats or are usually the last to board when all other passengers have boarded and there are some vacant seats in the plane..Its so unfortunate that the same succesive governments who are responsible for the demise of this once top airline are now finding an easy escape route by putting the blame on its work force i do agree thar there are large number of black sheep in PIA but these are normally the people who have been hired on political basis. Honourable minister has a very short memory rather,he along with hamza shahbaz after arriving at lahore from islamabad after getting a very warm welcome from their cronies forced fully embarked on one of the passenger busses while forcing the other female passengers out of it. Islamabad airport is the most chaotic airport i have ever seen and on arrival its usually caused by the customs and the immigration.
This is the only way to fix the deep hole in taxpayers money. How long will the taxpayer's suffer due to unpaid/highly subsidised luxuries of PIA employees and a handful of Babus?
No need to threat, just privatize it! Government has no business running Airlines, Railways, Steel Mills. There is nothing "National Asset" about any of these entities. They are businesses. Let the people with profit as aim run these companies, make money, pay taxes and welcome to open econonomy. Just do it Ahsan! You are a Wharton MBA, you know this more than anyone.
For those who think this is a national asset, guys I am sorry but you all need to grow up and open your brains to basic economics. 19K jobs at PIA, unions, as Cobra Commander said above, free perks. All these are the ways to run any business to ground.
Good decision. Privatise it. It's been a drain for too long and if it's not privatized, the unions will not let the government make any reforms. Democratic governments depend on popularity which translates to votes. Each decision by them will be challenged by the unions publicly who are too used to the good life, and will result in less popularity of the govt. So the govt will be hesitant to make reforms. Let the private sector handle it. If PIA doesn't pay the government exchequer a single penny, selling it will still be a huge improvement to it's current condition, which is costing millions. We might at last get a national flag carrier we are proud of.
Privatization? You mean Shahid Khaqan Abbasi?. No problem. Pakistan is for sale for long. The same uncorrupt PIA experienced staff moved to Emirates Airlines and made it World’s number 1 (Emirates Airlines – 50% staff / engineers / experience from Ex PIA employees). End corruption Ahsan Sahab and it will be profitable.
@Jawwad Hafeez: The government has appointed a new board of directors of professionals and now the minister when demanding the PIA is actually demanding its new management to improve. It was the wadera peoples' party that has greatly destroyed PIA by its limitless corruption and incompetence
He is either being naive or super intelligent. Instead of putting all on the blame on PIA, they should let the poor airline function just like any other commercial entity. If PIA is overstaffed then who is responsible for this, did the IMF direct the governments to over staff the already debt ridden organizations.
Wake up Mr. Super Intelligent, instead of taking the easy way out come up with some foolproof plans of getting the airline out of this hole. Privatization is a good thing but is it really the option on hand.
I totally agree that the privatization of the carrier is now long over due and the govt. should not rush into it just like it was done incase of PTCL.
very soon PIA will be handed to Mnsha group...since Mansha gr.helped PML-N to win election in punjab,,by excessive load shedding before election.........
Please privatise PIA and get rid of all these fat rats. Its a nuisance lining up on overseas airports at PIA counters where the same PIA staff give privilege treatment to some and give them seats meant for old people and passenger with infants. I'm witness to these irregularities many times.
PIA needs a multipronged operation. HR needs to be rationalized on merit. New aircrafts (short/medium range like A320s) need to be inducted. Corrupt need to be taken to task. A competent management must be in place. In addition, if you want to retain competent officers, there salaries must be increased to bridge the huge gap between what PIA pays and what they are offered by Emirates/Qatar or Ittehad.
You'll Sir are again procrastinating...............privatise it today, the rot is too extensive for you'll to correct.
And why they dont highlight that every minister recieves 48 tkts per month free.
He today only realize the hue and cry of passenger. Laughing Stock
PIA is bogged down by the corruption and incompetence of the political appointemnts made through the erevenge of democracy era
the former corrupt government over filled pia with political appointements which are nothing but a destructive burden on this organization. The problem is if the federal government tried to clean up the mess the ppp qould cry unjustice perpetrated against sindh
Privatize. That is the only way to shed the garbage. In Bangladesh they installed a foreigner as MD and the service has improved.
PIA is getting from bad to worse. It is RED alert time
With a relatively better board of directors in place, they should hold on its privatization. Let mian mansha and co. do their work before calling the show off. I appreciate the minister standing in queue though.
Some wht I agree .....enough is enough...!!!
Go for it! in todays competitive and cut throat markets the government isn't capable of competing and over turning an industry as complicated as air lines! privatizing is the way to go...
To begin with on this issue, it has always been the Government's fault which took half cooked measures in resolving the problems of the national carrier and those too were countered when bailout packages from the national exchequer were given to PIA to protect it from facing the music of its own deeds. The inefficiencies and structural problems are so deep rooted in this public sector enterprise that its only resolution is turn it into a semi government organization with management control in the hands of private sector. The restructuring required for PIA would be painful and a unpopular decision. There will be strikes and disturbance, however eventually there would be a national carrier we all would be proud of.
To the point
While studying in US, I had a fellow student whose father was a captain in PIA. The student flew to Pakistan, twice or sometimes thrice a month , free of cost. For four years he availed this free service and I lost track of him after we graduated but I bet he availed it until his fathers retirement. I paid around $800 to $1200 for a trip from NYC to Lahore once a year. Just do the math and you will find out why PIA went down the drain. PIA is just a subsidized service for government officials, army officials and PIA staff. If you are related to anyone of three then you can take whatever from Pakistan and bring whatever to Pakistan no question asked. The only option is privitization which will rid it of the official free riders.
Make PIA a public private partnership entity to improve its working.At present its not tolerable to run it on tax payer money
PIA staff steals from customers. They did it with me. Governments owning firms is the most deluded idea in the world. Sell everything and tax them. That is the way the government should earn money, through taxes, not by managing an entity.
Create a new Airline - PIA Employees International Airline. Put all their provident fund as capital and get whatever planes & infrastructure with that money and handover the operations to them. They can enjoy life with their own money. Privatize PIA and get professionals at all levels to bring it at par with other International Airlines.
Is PIA such an insolvable mystery that EVERYONE keeps talking about how bad it is doing, but NO ONE does anything to remedy this? Is it just me or does it sound like a broken record now. Every other day I read a news about PIA and it's magnum losses! PIA, PIA, PIA. Enough already!
Why is it so hard to make reforms in this country? If two successive government can't even fix a mere organization with bunch of people running it then there is really no hope for fixing bigger issues like terrorism and foreign policy.
good step mr minister.being a PIA customer for last decade i have seen its performance deteriorating day by day and now its the limit it cant go any further.expecting alot more from u
Suggested by Mian Mansha and Khaqan Abassi, lip service by Ahsan Iqbal.
Wow, this government instead of fixing PIA is trying to give this national asset away to private profiteers.