PIA employees job security continues to irk parliamentarians

ISLAMABAD: A new transaction structure would now be proposed for finalising the strategy to privatise the Pakistan International Airlines, the Privatisation Commission told parliamentarians on Thursday amid concerns raised by senators on job security in the aftermath of the approval the PIA Act in a joint sitting of the Parliament.

“The new transaction structure has not been finalised yet even though the old one has become obsolete. The new transaction structure will be proposed to go ahead with the privatisation of the PIA,” Secretary Privatisation Commission Ahmed Nawaz Sukhera told the Senate Standing Committee on Finance, which held its meeting under the chairmanship of Senator Saleem Mandviwalla at the parliament house.

While referring to Pakistan International Airlines Corporation (Conversion) Act 2016 under section 3 (6), the parliamentarians were told that all employees of the corporation should be deemed employees of the company on the same remuneration and other condition of services, rights and privileges.

Senator Kamil Ali Agha said it was the biggest lie of this century that the employees were fully protected. After the meeting, he told reporters that the PIAC bill was approved in the joint sitting of parliament without circulating the bill among the parliamentarians.

Secretary PC refuted this perception and stated that each and every clause of PIAC act was approved with complete consensus and understanding that the employees of the PIA would be fully protected.

When Senator Mandviwalla raised questions why Pakistan Airways was floated, the Secretary PC replied that they had nothing to do with Pak Airways and the question should be presented to the Civil Aviation Division.

To another query regarding hiring 619 employees into PIA in the last three years, the Secretary said this issue did not fall under the jurisdiction of the Privatisation Commission.

Earlier, finance ministry high-ups briefed senators on International Monitory Fund (IMF) loan agreement of $6.64 billion in the 36 months Extended Fund Facility (EFF), out of which Islamabad, after completion of 10 reviews, obtained $5.76 billion and paid back $4.4 billion so the net inflows from the IMF stood at $1.3 billion.

When asked about the possibility of not going to the IMF after expiry of the ongoing EFF in coming September, Secretary Finance Dr Waqar Masood said Pakistan would have to stick to the path of reforms. In 2008 a surge in oil and commodity prices created difficulties, but now the reduction in POL prices has provided us with breathing space.

On existing EFF arrangement, Dr Masood said the interest rate was standing at 1.05 percent against 1.03 percent in case of the last loan of Standby Arrangement (SBA) obtained during the previous Pakistan Peoples Party-led regime in 2008.

It would be the first time during the tenure of a democratically elected government that an IMF programme would complete successfully, Dr Waqar said, adding that the net international reserves which stood at negative $2.4 billion, had now crossed $6.609 billion till December 2015.

The high-ups of Ministry of Water and Power told the committee that average overall tariff would be coming down as the prices had reduced by Rs3.63 on average in the wake of reduced fuel prices in the international market.

The circular debt, they said, did not increase because of improvement in efficiency and reduction in losses.