Allaying concerns: PIA not being privatised, says Pervaiz Rashid

Airline will be made profitable by selling 26% shares to private sector.

KARACHI:

Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) is not being privatised but a change for the better would be taking place as it would operate on a public-private partnership basis with the interests of the employees well protected, the Federal Minister for Information Pervaiz Rashid said.

Rashid was talking to the representatives of Joint Action Committee of PIA employees who had called upon him at a local hotel on Wednesday.

The delegation was led by Sohail Baloch, president of Pakistan Airlines Pilots Association (PALPA) and Shamim Akmal, central president of Air League.

Rashid said that the meeting has been called on the directive of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to make it clear to the employees of PIA that only 26% shares of the airline are being sold to the private sector to make it profitable and that there was no plan to privatise it.

He said that the government wants to streamline the affairs of PIA. He stated that a managing director would be appointed in the PIA who would not only share the profits in the organisation but also bear the losses, in case such a situation arises.

No business should run under government control, he said, recalling that during the previous PML-N government the policy of liberalisation of the economy was adopted.

He said that PIA has a big market with some Hajis and Umrah pilgrims, and those who head for the Gulf and the UK fly by PIA, adding no agreement would be signed that might affect the employees’ interests.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 19^th, 2013.