PIA employees in Saudi Arabia have not received salaries since 3 months

KARACHI: Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) employees in Saudi Arabia have not been given their salaries since three months according to sources, Express News reported on Wednesday.

There is a risk of a ban being put on the national airline because of this. PIA has about 50 employees in Saudi Arabia.

Since six months health insurance was also not paid.

Four of PIA’s stations are operational in Saudi Arabia. They are in Jeddah, Dammam, Madinah and Riyadh.

Background

On September 12, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had directed the ministry of Privatization and Civil Aviation Division to initiate the process of privatisation for PIA with immediate effect. The decision was taken during a meeting chaired by the Prime Minister at the PM House in Islamabad. The Prime Minister gave the go-ahead for an initial phase of privatisation which will see 26% of the airline’s shares privatised. In a speech broadcast in September, Nawaz had described financially troubled state-owned enterprises including PIA as a drain on taxpayers’ money.

PIA’s share in international passenger traffic from Pakistan came down to 35% in 2012-13 from 43% in 2007-08. While Pakistan has air services agreements with 45 countries, PIA flies to just a handful of them because of shortage of aircraft. PIA had recently inducted four B-737s on wet lease to make sure it can spare bigger 777s for international destinations. The airline had also received government’s nod to induct narrow-body aircraft on dry lease next year.