ISLAMABAD: The opposition has rebuffed a government offer for constitution of a parliamentary oversight committee to watch over the running of the affairs of the new Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) Limited Company.
“In response to the senior opposition leaders’ serious reservations about the conversion of the PIA into a company, the government proposed to them formation of the oversight committee,” a participant of a meeting that mulled over the business of the next week’s joint session of the Senate and the National Assembly told The News.
Top representatives of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) also attended the discussion. Amicable National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq played a key role in organizing this meeting so that the government and the opposition settle the rules of the game to be followed in the joint sitting in order to avoid any unnecessary pandemonium.
The participant said he was surprised as to why the opposition turned its back on the official suggestion despite knowing that the government has the requisite majority in the joint sitting to push through its choice legislative business.
The government offer came when the opposition said that the PIA-owned Roosevelt Hotel in New York must not be sold and the airline’s workforce should not be offloaded to create further unemployment.
The source said that the opposition dismissed the official offer because it, in no way, wants to be part of the PIA privatization. Had it consented to the proposal, it would have expressed its agreement to the new arrangement for the airline, he said.
However, the ruling party representatives made it clear that the government has neither planned to sell the Roosevelt hotel nor did any PIA employee would be shown the door. All these assertions are misplaced, they said and proposed the oversight committee so that the opposition has a say in running the PIA company and guards against any step to be taken by the government that it doesn’t want.
These representatives said the primary objective of the conversion of the PIA Corporation into a limited company was to bring in a strategic investor to improve the financial position of the carrier. “We will welcome addition of any number of aircraft to the existing fleet; we presently have 38 planes and if someone contributes a similar number of aircraft we will be pleased,” they said adding that it was unfair to impute motives to the government’s initiative.
The government side also offered to the opposition to propose amendments, highlighting the safeguards it wants, in the PIA bill and reach a consensus outside the House so that the piece of legislation was passed unanimously. It did not want to approve the bill on the force of its numerical strength and told the opposition that whatever it was saying in these deliberations should be moved in the form of amendments.
The participants were informed that the PIA losses have accumulated over Rs300 billion, and during the current fiscal its losses stood at Rs80 billion. They were explained that the government was in no position to continue feeding the white elephant with no hope of any retrieval.
The government will make another attempt in a pre-parliamentary session meeting, to be attended by all sides, on Monday to sort out differences over the PIA bill. An official briefing has been arranged where the opposition’s questions will be answered to remove their reservations.
However, there is a clear feeling in the official circles that come what may the opposition parties are not going to agree to the unanimous passage of the PIA bill as they have taken a hard stand against it, and finally the government will have to clear it on the basis of its numerical superiority in the joint sitting.
It agreed to the opposition’s proposal that the PIA bill would not be approved in hurry on Monday. However, if there was no consensus on the PIA bill, the session would also be held on Tuesday or Thursday to pass it.
On the first day, the joint session will take up some five other bills relating to gas theft, honour killing etc., which have been referred by the Senate after they were approved by it. They had been sponsored by the private members.
As the government is pushed to approve the PIA bill whether or not there is consensus on it with the opposition, its privatization agenda would get a boost after its passage as a strategic investor would be involved to improve its financial health.