Praise for PIA

PIA's new management deserves praise for restoring some semblance of administrative discipline in the national airline, which has been plagued by fake degree holders and ghost employees. The decision to shift the administrative head office to the federal capital will undoubtedly help restore administrative and financial discipline in this airline which has been subjected to political interference and has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. It is not just employee administrative discipline which must be restored but also discipline within corporate executive corridors, without which PIA revenues will not increase, nor optimum fleet utilization achieved. PIA must plug leakages in the procurement and leasing of aircraft.

Almost 50 percent of PIA's total international sales are in hard currency and therefore any reliable revenue comparison can only be made in dollar terms. Massive devaluation over the past few years, which ranges to almost 40 percent, does not reflect actual increase if the comparison is in Pakistani currency. PIA’s CEO has recently claimed that the loss-making national airline has achieved revenue exceeding operating cost in the quarter ending March 31, 2019. However what is intriguing is that these quarterly reports which are mandatory to be made public as per SECP laws have not been published and made available on the airline's official website since 2017.

Malik Tariq

Lahore