LAHORE - PIA employees protest against airline’s privatisation will enter into 4th consecutive day on Friday (today) when booking offices will remain closed, said an office-bearer of Joint Action Committee of PIA (JACPIA).
He said that though Secretary Aviation Irfan Ali had called a meeting with JACPIA officers on Friday (today) at Islamabad but he was not much hopeful about the solution of the issue.
JACPIA core committee members including Hidayat Ullah, Nasir janjua, Shamim Akmal and Sohail Baloch will visit Islamabad today to see secretary aviation.
Headquarters and booking offices of the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) remained closed yesterday across the country to protest privatisation of the airline.
A PIA officer seeking anonymity said that prime minister and Federal Finance Minister Ishaq Dar had once met with the JACPIA members but they could not reach any consensus over the issue. He believed that after sale of 26 percent share of the airline the individual who will purchase the said share will never let the 18,000 employees of airline to continue their jobs. The prime minister and other authorities have regularly been assuring airlines’ employees that there would be no job loss. He said that in the past government privatised PTCL and promised the employees that there would be no job loss but unfortunately 40,000 employees were sacked from the jobs.
Headquarters and booking offices of the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) remained closed yesterday across the country to protest privatisation of the airline. Angry workers would suspend flight operation on February 02 if their demands were not met, said an office-bearer of Joint Action Committee PIA (JACPIA). He said, “Closure of airline booking offices across the country will continue and Oil Tankers Owners Association has also joined hands with us to halt the fuel supply from February 2”.
An office-bearer of JACPIA said that PIA Chairman Nasir Jaffer called on JACPIA representatives’ couple of days back at PIA headquarters and assured them that PIA was a public limited company and there would be no loss of job at any cost. In Lahore on Thursday airline’s booking office situated at Edgerton Road was closed down by PIA employees. They locked the main gate of booking office at 7:45 am on third consecutive day. No employee or officer could enter the office and no office work could be done there.