Draining the economy?: Nawaz concerned over PIA losses

Says monthly losses come to Rs3.3 billion.

ISLAMABAD:

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday expressed dissatisfaction over the performance of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), saying that it is incurring monthly losses worth Rs3.3 billion to the national exchequer due to its inefficiency, corruption and malpractices.

He stated this at a special meeting of the federal cabinet, which PM Nawaz chaired at the PM office.

“At present we are only dealing with day to day crisis at PIA. Taxpayer’s hard earned money is being paid to PIA to bail it out of economic crisis in order to sustain it. However this situation cannot continue anymore,” said the prime minister. Nawaz said that this money should be invested in the power sector and development of other resources instead of sustaining the inefficient PIA.

“Over-employment and low quality services have led to the downfall of our national airline, which was once considered amongst the world’s best,” the prime minister noted. He directed the PIA management to provide a detailed briefing on the airline’s current situation and bring about concrete proposals to reform the airliner.

In his remarks, the premier said that economic development is the key to progress but terrorism and extremism are badly hampering an economic turnaround in Pakistan.



The prime minister said that during his previous tenures the policy of free market economy was adhered to which led to faster economic growth at the time and that the government has once again decided to adopt the same framework with an enlarged vision and increased vigour.

The cabinet discussed good management practices to be adopted by the government sector to make it more effective, efficient and accountable.

Senator Dato’ Siri Idris Jala, Minister in Malaysian Prime Minister’s Office and CEO Performance Management and Delivery Unit (PMDU), Government of Malaysia attended the Cabinet meeting on PM Nawaz’s special invitation. He shared his experiences of Malaysian economic programmes and government transformation.

He informed the cabinet that Malaysia transformed its economy by devising short term plans within the framework of its larger strategic programmes, and set time-line for achieving those plans by giving key performance indicators.

The public as well as private sectors were involved, through well defined process, in devising these policies and making them achievable, he added. He informed the cabinet that in order to attract foreign and domestic investors, procedures were simplified.


Published in The Express Tribune, September 11^th, 2013.