PPP moves Senate against PIA, PSM privatisation

ISLAMABAD: The PPP Monday submitted a calling attention notice in the Senate Secretariat against the privatisation of PIA and Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM).

Drawing attention to decision of the Cabinet Committee on Privatisation, the notice moved by senator Farhatullah Babar says: "During the past 5 years, both PSM and PIA have accumulated huge losses to the tune of hundreds of billions. The gross and almost criminal neglect in the running of these entities gave rise to speculations whether the losses were incurred by design to create justification for their sale at throw away prices.”

He said the PSM reached precipice after it was denied gas supply since 2015 and that too at a time the production was 65 per cent. "The PIA reached the brink by a combination of factors including the absence of business plan, floating Premier Service at a loss of nearly 3 billion rupees. Highly expensive lease agreements, open skies policy without discussion, giving dozens of landing rights to one airline in one day and discontinuation of some important routes drastically reducing PIA’s market share,” the notice says.