Employees union blasts proposed PIA privatisation

PESHAWAR: Central president of People’s Unity Hidayatullah Khan on Saturday said they would not let the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leadership sell the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) on a throwaway price.

Through a press release issued here, he said that former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his associates were trying to auction the national flag carrier and sell it to their blue-eyed people in the name of privatisation. The president of People’s Unity, the PIA employees’ body of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), said that PML-N had a history of selling national institutions whenever it came into power and the PIA was being sold secretly this time.

He said the habit of Nawaz Sharif to accumulate wealth was costing the country dearly and depriving the state of its precious assets.

Hidayatullah Khan said Nawaz Sharif was trying to take hold of national institutions through his front men. He alleged that similar tactics were being used to grab PIA.

He added that the PIA was a national entity and all the provinces had a share in it, thus the matter should be taken up at the Council of Common Interests (CCI). “The federal government is privatising the PIA and all this is being done secretly,” said Hidayatullah.

He maintained that the proposed privatisation plan of the PIA was against the national interests and urged the CCI, Senate and National Assembly to raise their voices against the selling of the national flag carrier and saving the state institution.