Govt unlikely to accept demands of PIA employees

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s resolve to gradually unload whopping annual burden of Rs500 billion from the national kitty brought by ailing government entities, aptly described as white elephants, will get a boost if he was successful in dealing with the unprecedented strike by the employees of the national flag carrier.

On his directions, the government representatives had agreed, during talks with the protesters, to defer the involvement of the strategic investor for six months, but the agitators still went ahead with their plan to paralyze air operations.

This exasperated the premier and forced him to lead the anti-strike campaign from the front. He has determinedly spoken on it over the past four days. “We will never surrender to the illegal strike,” Nawaz Sharif said in Muzaffarabad on Friday, giving a clear message to the protesters that he will not back down and the agitation has to be wrapped up sooner than later.

He backed up his effort to improve the government entities with the people’s support saying that masses had given his party the mandate to make institutions better.

In the meantime, passengers are facing unparalleled nightmares and have never been so much beleaguered as they have been for the past four days. The strikers couldn’t care less whether the passengers are ordinary travelers or the intending Umra performers or those returning from Saudi Arabia after the pilgrimage.

On the other hand, the government has put together some arrangements to improve the conditions, but they are far less than the requirements. The situation may ease to a large extent if the agreements worked out or being reached with  some foreign airliners quickly come into full operation should the complete shutdown persist for another few days. But this blockade is emitting a negative portrayal of Pakistan abroad.

Although the prevailing conditions are obviously very precarious because of the sufferings of the passengers, the government has taken a hard-line by declaring not to hold negotiations with the protesters. It is also waiting for fissures to occur in the sponsors of the agitation and their nervous breakdown in the face of the natural pressure caused by the campaign. Conversely, the strikers are adamant to press their main demand – altogether scrapping of the plan to involve the strategic investor.

If the government was able to survive the present agitation and came out successfully, it will get rid of the massive financial burden imposed by the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA). Only then, its phased plan to privatize other mega entities, which are devouring billions of rupees annually and becoming more and more burdensome and unmanageable with every passing day, will get going. There is no other way out but to bring in the private sector to run these sick organizations because it has been proved beyond an iota of doubt that successive governments have miserably failed to make them financially viable. Instead, every ruling party has been stuffing them with their cronies on hefty salaries.

The PIA employees’ strike is the first marathon protest faced by the Nawaz Sharif government since it assumed office in June 2013. It is being held in a totally changed political environment when the government feels self-assured and is all set even to take ominous problems head-on.

The conditionality of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to privatize the PIA as part of the soft-term loan package apart, the move to engage the private sector to make the national carrier afloat is valuable for Pakistan. Those opposing its privatization are at a loss to give the counter argument as to why the government should keep sparing billions of rupees annually to keep the PIA just alive. Organizations like the PIA and Pakistan Steel are supposed to significantly contribute to the national exchequer through their profitable business rather than burdening it tremendously.

Highly damaging strikes like the one may have been successful bringing the government to its knees if they had been held during 2014 when the sit-ins had cornered it. While the government is not confronted with any such formidable situation but is well-ensconced much better since it came in place, it is totally ruled out that it will accept any demands of the PIA employees.

Since the very start of the protest, the government leaders have been claiming that political elements were behind the agitation of the PIA employees. This is what the prime minister has also stated more than once.

Whether or not there is any substance in this charge, it is a fact that almost all political parties have expressed solidarity with the protesters. Leaders of some of them have also addressed the agitators and encouraged them to continue their activities. If one party supported the PIA employees, others took it as their duty to do the same so that they don’t lag behind in taking political capital out of the situation.