Media misreporting PIA assets’ facts, Zubair tells Senate body

ISLAMABAD: Privatisation Commission Chairman Muhammad Zubair informed the Senate Standing Committee on Cabinet that the facts about the evaluation of PIA property were misreported in the media.

The Commission was responsible to re-evaluate the PIA assets in accordance with its current market value if the government went for any such move. He said the senate body should get briefing about the process being adopted for corporatisation of PIA before expressing its opinion about it.

Zubair said that the Bill has no relation with privatisation of PIA saying that this is conversion like Zari Tarqiati Bank Limited (ZTBL) and Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) that were not privatised.

Chairman Committee Talha Anwar observed that 12 days’ time was given to the body for preparing its report on the bill which was not enough to discussed all issues related to PIA assets evaluation reservations and PIA union presentation etc. The body also recommended to constitute a Parliamentary Committee comprising of equal representation of all stakeholders tooversight privatization process.