Cash-strapped Pakistan will privatise PIA, its loss-making national carrier as part of a deal with the IMF which is pushing the country to get rid of the ailing airlines.
"We have already planned to privatise the PIA (Pakistan International Airlines) in view of its heavy and recurring financial losses," said Privatisation Minister Mohammad Zubair, triggering protests by the PIA employees and the main opposition party Pakistan People's Party .
The privatisation is part of a deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which is pushing Pakistan to get rid of ailing Pakistan International Airline (PIA) due to losses it had been suffering for the past several years.
PIA suffers billion of rupees of losses annually and the government has to inject 12 to 15 billion rupees every year to keep it in the air.
Opposition leader Khurshid Shah, who belongs to PPP, along with several smaller parties yesterday boycotted the National Assembly session over government decision to offload the carrier.
"We were and are against privatisation and will never let the government sell national assets for nothing," Shah said in angry outburst before stomping out of parliament.
The workers of the airline have been also up in arms and protesting against the decision by the government.
It has failed to deter the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Zubair who told media that the government will go ahead with the plan.
As the fear of protest looms large, finance minister Ishaq Dar met Sharif to discuss the issue of PIA.
Radio Pakistan reported that Ishaq told the Prime Minister that no employee of PIA will be laid off as the national flag carrier undergoes privatisation following the passage of a presidential ordinance.
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Dar said the PIA company law partnership will offer job protection to PIA employees and insulate the national flag carrier from bureaucratic control, allowing it to operate as an autonomous corporation along the same lines as the Oil and Gas Development Corporation Limited.
There are over 15,000 employees, who have been rallying at major airports across the country in the past two days.
Zubair said the government was thinking on various options, including to sell 26 per cent of the total shares along with management control.
