Appointment of mediocre unqualified men with questionable integrity in PIA, seems to be the proverbial last straw that broke the camels back. The national airline with an assured load factor of over 70% ethnic Pakistani travelers, has been going in a loss, not because of lack of revenues, but due to excessive pilferages, kickbacks, commissions and sheer mismanagement. While the international aviation industry is enjoying the fruits of resurgence in revenues and profits, PIA in spite of its comparable fare structure, is going nose down. This elected government, instead of providing state owned corporations with qualified professionals of integrity, for which there is no dearth, has dumped all its incompetent and corrupt cronies into them. Till the beginning of December 2010, this PIA management was insisting on procuring over 42 new aircrafts, while its existing fleet was under utilized. When funds were not made available, the airline management desperate to get kickbacks and commissions, and seeing the political climate changes in the offing, reversed their strategy and went ahead to sell their most precious asset, namely international routes. This management of PIA has during its brief tenure of 33 months escalated its accumulated losses by over 120%, and almost tripled their liabilities through short term borrowings. One wonders why this government is obsessed with appointing the most corrupt, most unqualified and most incompetent of their cronies to state owned corporations at a time when the national economy is in its worst recession and we are almost on the brink of defaulting. PIAs total fleet and even future sales are already pledged as equity and are owned by the banks. The only thing left were the international routes obtained through years of bilateral agreements, which was its most precious asset and even this is being sold for a song by incompetent executives. RAHAT SIDDIQI, Karachi, January 10.