PIA misgivings

The government seems to be adept at producing every plausible reason to circumvent any serious effort aimed at forestalling the sale of PIA. Will the PM House or the Privatisation Commission answer some of the glaring questions agitating the people’s mind? What is the value of PIA assets as ascertained by the government relative to those determined through fair market pricing? What kind of process has the government adopted to find a strategic buyer for the airline? How is former PM’s adviser Shujaat Azeem’s company benefitting from the CAA’s open sky policy? What would be the post-privatisation management arrangements of PIA? What business models are being considered for turning around PIA?

If all misgivings of taxpayers are properly allayed without the recourse to statistical jugglery and figure-fudging techniques, and a transparent and honest approach geared towards effecting actual improvement in PIA’s operations is adopted, then there is no harm in sourcing out PIA to a strategic buyer. But the PML-N would shy away from such transparency the way it has buried the entire engineering estimation of the metro-bus project in the ground.

Waseem Afzal Jadoon

Abbottabad