The PIA sale

This refers to the editorial, ‘In the air’ (February 9). PM Nawaz Sharif had earlier attempted to privatise the national flag carrier in 1998-99. A second attempt is now being made to sell the airline. The assets and properties of PIA have been grossly undervalued to benefit the potential buyer. It is further being proposed that the buyer would be handed over a liability free airline with transfer of all existing assets and properties. The liabilities are planned to be taken over by the government, burdening the national exchequer.

If PML-N government cannot manage PIA or the Pakistan Steel Mills, how can it efficiently run metro buses and trains or the Nandipur power project? The metro bus is incurring a huge loss and is being subsidised from taxpayers’ money. The Nandipur project has turned out to be a fiasco because of gross mismanagement. The metro train will also be a white elephant and require huge subsidies. It may be recalled that ex CJ Iftikhar Chaudhry intervened when the PSM was being sold during the Musharraf era. We ask Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali to intervene by taking suo motu notice and stop the non-transparent sale of PIA.

Kulsoom Arif

Karachi