JAC head urges workers not to heed calls for disrupting flights; says a kind friend advised them to call off strike; no justification to continue strike after assurance on privatisation; committee meets Shahbaz Sharif today
KARACHI: The flight operations of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) were fully restored on Tuesday after the anti-privatisation employees called off their strike, saying their return to work was a must to ensure the safety and security of passengers and flights.
“PIA’s entire flight schedule, including all international flights, has been restored. The passengers may come to airports as per their flight reservations,” Daniyal Gillani, the spokesman for the airline, said in a short message.
The flight operations came to a complete halt on February 2 evening following the killing of two workers during a rally that was marching towards the Jinnah International Terminal, demanding that the privatisation plan of the national flag carrier be scrapped.
Announcing an end to the strike after their 15-day nationwide sit-in, Captain Sohail Baloch, leader of the Joint Action Committee of PIA employees, said: “Several planes were operated without safety clearance.”
The PIA management and Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority have denied compromising on safety measures.Before the strike was called-off, the partially restored flight operations were gradually returning to normalcy since late Saturday night.
The return of normalcy accelerated on Tuesday when the airline managed to fly over one-third of its routine flights of over 100 in a day. Moreover, operations were resumed from almost all the airports nationwide.
The employees had launched a sit-in outside the head office and other offices countrywide on January 26 against the government’s decision to privatise the national flag carrier.
During the protest, the government decided not to invite the protesting employees to negotiating table unless they called off the strike.The leaders of the Join Action Committee are scheduled to meet the Punjab Chief Minister, Shahbaz Sharif, on Wednesday (today).
“We hope that the meeting with the Punjab chief minister will be satisfactory and beneficial both for the government and employees of PIA,” said Baloch.Baloch announced that the airline would resume its normal operations immediately and requested all airline workers to work with full dedication and pay no heed to anyone trying to disrupt the flight operations.
To a question, he said: “A kind friend advised us to call off the strike.”“The assurance given to us by the government to resolve the issues is enough to make us call off the strike,” he added.
Asked if the JAC had retracted from its demands, Baloch said he will apprise the media about the developments after meeting the Punjab chief minister.
“Since the committee has been given enough assurance on the issue of privatisation, further continuation of the strike and stalling the flight operations are not required,” Sohail Baloch said.
“If the PIA workers cooperate with each other, there is no reason they cannot revive the airline within a year. We can revive this airline; we just need some support and guidance,” said Baloch. “We will prove that we can revive the ailing national airline. I don’t see why we can’t do this if we all work hard and are able to revive PIA within a time of six months to a year.” In Karachi, another 300 pilgrims returned home from Jeddah on Tuesday morning, which is the second flight to land at Karachi during the PIA employees’ strike. Meanwhile, another flight carrying pilgrims from Jeddah also departed for Lahore.
Meanwhile, a PML-N MNA said on Tuesday the privatisation process of PIA would be fair and transparent.Addressing a press conference, Daniyal Aziz said the government was committed to privatising the sick state-owned entities (SOEs) to save over Rs600 billion annually that were being wasted on those entities.He asked the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) to leave the politics of dual standards, which was harming the country instead of the PML-N.
