Privatised identity

Successive governments have followed their own privatisation agenda after the process was first started by Nawaz Sharif in 1990. We have since seen many organisations privatised – some are still around and earning profits while the rest are history. But the situation created after the government promulgated the ordinance to privatise PIA is unprecedented for the government. The government says privatisation is necessary because PIA’s balance sheet is in the red. One should ask the government: who will buy this huge loss-making entity? Second, why is PIA going into loses?

It is better to find the causes of this fall in revenue and take measures to overcome these rather than privatising the airline. One way to generate revenue is to add new destinations in PIA’s flight operations, provide better facilities to attract passengers and maintain a tight monetary control, etc. Privatisation is not the solution to loss-making state-run enterprises. If this single criterion is followed then nothing will be left with us and one day we will lose our identity as well.

Abid Ali Yousufzai

Swat