LAHORE - The Joint Action Committee of PIA (JACPIA) yesterday will shut the airline’s headquarters and booking offices across the country in protest against privatization of the national flag carrier, said an office bearer of the employees union. He said protest was also staged at the Lahore airport yesterday while the Joint Action Committee of PIA (JACPIA), at a meeting, has given a call for further protest against privatisation.

“We will keep the airline headquarters and booking offices closed from 8:30am to 5:30pm for two days,” said Sajid Gujjar, president, People’s Unity of PIA employees, Lahore. He said if the federal government did not accept their demands, they would be left with no other option but to suspend the flight operation after two days. To a question whether or not protests would affect the flight operation during the two days, he said, “Of course, it will to some extent, but there will be real impact on the flight operation after two days when protest will be staged inside the airports”.

He said, apart from the airline headquarters, Karachi, all booking offices in Lahore, Islamabad, Peshawar, Multan, Faisalabad and Quetta would remain closed and no fresh air tickets would be issued to any passenger. Sajid said all associations of the airlines had been taken on board and they would unanimously go on strike against privatisation of the national flag carrier. The JACPIA office bearers will meet on Wednesday (tomorrow) evening again to finalise future action plan, including suspension of the flight operation.

Meanwhile, the PIA management has requested the union leaders not to close down airline’s offices as it may cause inconvenience to passengers across the country, a spokesman said in a statement issued here yesterday. He said the management had sought cooperation of all the employees in the revival of the national flag carrier. Any disruption in the flight schedule would not only cause huge losses to the airline, but also create problems for the travellers, he added.

Our staff reporter adds from Karachi: The Joint Action Committee of Pakistan International Airlines employees yesterday announced to close all offices of the airline from yesterday and threatened to suspend flight operation from February 2 if the government did not meet its demands. This was stated by Joint Action Committee President Sohail Baloch while addressing a press conference. All PIA offices, including head office, booking offices and training centres would be locked for a week from Tuesday till February 2, he added.

He further said the flight operation would continue in the interest of the people. But if the government did not meet their demands, the flight operation would remain suspended from February 2 for indefinite period, Baloch warned. He presented four demands, including reversal of the PIA privatisation bill passed by the National Assembly a few days ago, avoid selling the shares of the national flag carrier, give a chance to the employees for restoration of PIA and review the current aviation policy, besides forming a committee to amend the current aviation policy.

The Joint Action Committee Secretary Obaidullah Khan told The Nation that various political parties and labour unions, including Civil Aviation, Pakistan Railways, Steel Mills, oil tankers had assured cooperation against the PIA privatisation. Khan further said the Joint Action Committee had staged various peaceful protest demonstrations besides trying to resolve the issue through dialogues, but the government had forced them to take the step closing down PIA offices across the country.

It is worth mentioning that the PIA labour unions, under the umbrella of the Joint Action Committee, launched protest drive against privatisation of the airline after notification of the presidential ordinance. A couple of days ago, the Joint Action Committee staged a countrywide protest at all airports of Pakistan and observed Anti-Privatisation Day with the cooperation of labour unions of different institutions. Various political parties, including Pakistan People’s Party, Jamaat-e-Islami, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Muttahida Quami Movement, especially labour wing of the ruling party, also participated in the anti-privatisation drive against the government.