PPP senators allege govt selling PIA, PSM on throwaway prices

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) on Wednesday in the Senate doubted the government’s intention on hasty decision to privatise Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) and Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM), citing Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbai’s association with aviation and ex-PM Nawaz Sharif’s with steel industry.

PPP Senators alleged that the government wanted to sell at ‘OLX’ the key state entities at throwaway prices with general election a few months away.

Chairman Senate Mian Raza Rabbani disallowed an adjournment motion moved by Senator Farhatullah Babar to discuss the dispatch of Pakistani troops to Saudi Arabia bypassing the unanimously adopted parliamentary resolution affirming neutrality in the ongoing military conflict in the region.

“The Minister for Defence has already made a policy statement in the Senate and a number of Senators also spoken on the subject and further discussion therefore is disallowed,” Chairman Rabbani remarked.

Pressing his point, Senator Babar said the ISPR announced the decision last week after a meeting between Army Chief and Saudi Ambassador in Islamabad, which was preceded by a three-day visit to Saudi Arabia during which the Army Chief also met Crown Prince Salman and military commanders.

He listed two questions which he said remained unanswered and necessitated further discussion through adjournment motion.

One, whether during the recent meeting of the army chief with Saudi Crown Prince the Pakistani ambassador in Saudi Arabia was present and whether a representative of the FO was also present in the subsequent meeting between the Saudi Ambassador and the army chief in the GHQ.

Two, even without disclosing the troops location what is the guarantee that they will not be deployed along the Saudi-Yemen border in which case they can get sucked in the conflict in case hot pursuit became necessary, he asked.

He said that several other questions remain unanswered including the nuanced FO statements condemning the Houthi missile attacks as threat to the Kingdom and Holy Mosques. Such statement seemed to justify Pakistani troops actively engaging the Yemenis in the conflict on the side of the Saudis.

Speaking on a calling attention notice regarding the privatisation of PIA and PSM, PPP Senators including Farhatullah Babar and Sehar Kamran alleged the government for deliberately selling the entities at throwaway prices at a time when it has a few months to go in next general elections.

“The government is about to complete its tenure and the decision taken in haste is a deliberate and engineered to sell the PIA and PSM at throwaway prices when we know that the sitting Prime Minister is associated with aviation industry while the former with steel industry”, Babar said adding that it appears that there is a “person” sitting there as how to make these non-profit entities to pave the way for privatisation.

Similarly, he maintained that shutting the gas supply for PSM and not paying the salaries of its employees was also part of the plan while the actual focus is on the 19000 acre land of the PSM.

Senator Sehar Kamran, who also staged a token walkout from the House against the government decision, expressed the fear that both the entities would be handed over to the sitting Prime Minister and to his predecessor.

“This is a well thought-out conspiracy, they, while exiting from the power corridors, are bent upon selling everything on the ‘OLX’, she maintained.

“This is even comprehensible from the fact that PIA flights to New York were suspended while the Air Blue started its operation”, she maintained, adding that the PIA routes are also being given to private airlines.

Responding to the concerns of the Senators, Minister for Privatisation Daniyal Aziz rejected any conspiracy behind the planned privatisation of the PIA and PSM. He said that privatisation of the PIA is being done in the light of the special committee of the Parliament representing all the political parties constituted by the Speaker National Assembly after a joint sitting of the parliament two years back.