ISLAMABAD - In a major development, the government on Tuesday said that bidding for privatisation of loss-making Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) would be held on October 1st.
The Secretary Ministry of Privatisation informed a parliamentary committee that on completion of Pakistan International Airlines Company (PIAC) buy-side due diligence, the bidding process will be shown on live media on October, 01, 2024, after the approval of the cabinet. The contract with the contract wining company/consortia will be finalized. The committee was assured that the rights of the employees of the company will be protected during the privatisation process.
It was informed to the committee that privatisation of PIA was started in November last year, which is about to complete now. It was further told that successful bidder of the PIA will be required to invest between Rs65 to Rs70 billion and increase PIA’s fleet from 18 to 45 aircraft within a span of three years. The meeting of the Standing Committee on Privatization was held under the chairmanship of Muhammad Farooq Sattar, MNA. Committee’s chairman Farooq Sattar said that the PIA among all state-owned entities is being privatized first. “We will try to watch the bidding for the PIA live,” Sattar said.
“We will request Aleem Khan (privatization minister) to arrange for watching the bidding process,” NA body’s chairman said. “This session has been farewell meeting for the PIA,” he remarked. “Six companies will participate in bidding for PIA”, he said. “The PIA’s auction will be finalized on the first day of the next month”, Farooq Sattar said. “We will focus our sight over the rights of the employees after it,” he said. “There will be no bargaining over the salaries and allowances of the employees,” he added. The Committee constituted the Sub-Committee including Ms Sehar Kamran as convener and other members are Ms Sofia Saeed Shah and Ms Saba Sadiq. The Terms of Reference of the committee would be to look into the reasons of decline of Pakistan International Airlines Company (PIAC) and submit its report to the Committee.
Committee member Sahar Kamran urged that the draft agreement be presented to the committee for review. In response, the secretary confirmed that the draft has been shared with investors and is pending cabinet approval. Addressing the issue of pensions for retired PIA employees, the secretary noted that the total pension liability amounts to Rs35 billion rupees. The government will assume responsibility for paying pensions to retired employees, having already injected Rs800 billion into PIA to alleviate its debt burden, which now stands at zero.
The Chief Executive Officer of PIA assured the committee that the airline’s safety standards are currently at the highest international levels, with hopes to resume flights to the UK in the near future. He indicated that the new investors would need to recruit additional cabin crew and IT staff. MNAs, Anwar-ul-Haq Chaudhary, Ms Saba Sadiq, Nazir Ahmed Bhugio, Noman Islam Sheikh, Ali Asghar Khan, Khawaja Sheraz Mehmood, Ms Sehar Kamran, Ms Sofia Saeed Shah, attended the meeting. The officers from Ministry of Privatization, PIACL, State Life Insurance Corporation (SLIC) and ZTBL also attended meeting.
