The National Assembly's (NA) Special Committee led by Federal Minister for Climate Change and Human Rights Zahid Hamid took stock of the performance of PIA. The PIA Chairman briefed the committee about PIA performance and other issues. Chairman Privatisation Commission Muhammad Zubair briefed the committee members about restructuring plan of the national flag carrier.
The meeting was attended by MNAs Asad Umar of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Sheikh Rashid Ahmed of Awami Muslim League (PML), Naveed Qamar of Pakistan People's Party (PPP), Anusha Rehman, Rana Tanveer Hussain, Raja Javed Ikhlas, Lieutenant General Abdul Qadir Baloch (retired) and Rana Muhmmad Afzal Khan of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Ghazi Gulab Jamal and Ijazul Haq, besides Chairman Privatisation Commission Muhammad Zubair.
The committee members observed that the heavy loss-making national flag carrier could be revived by installing an efficient management. The government side headed by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar apprised the parliamentary body that the government had no plan to privatise PIA but the statutory body will be turned into a corporate entity so that it could become comparatively independent to take its own decisions for revival. They called it as strategic partnership.
"I assure you that the government will never go for privatisation of PIA but a model has been presented to make it a corporate body," adding that "In the entire world, national flag carriers are run as corporate entities. We are making efforts to make PIAC a vibrant and profit-earning corporate entity," Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said.
The statistics presented in the meeting showed that the PIA was running into losses and its liabilities were piling up. As per the presentation, revenue for the year 2015-16 is expected to be around Rs 91 billion as compared to corresponding year's over Rs 99 billion.
The operating expenses stood at Rs 87.217 billion, accumulated losses at Rs 255 billion and liabilities at Rs 320 billion, the meeting was informed. It was further informed that the PIA fleet had been strengthened by inducting more aircrafts on dry-lease, and presently 22 aircrafts were operating on domestic routes and 27 on international destinations. In 2015, the officials said, the PIA carried 2.9 million domestic and 1.4 million international passengers.
Asad Umer, while giving recommendations, said that the management needs to be changed adding that unless and until a highly professional team was not inducted in the PIA, it cannot be turned around. He said that no one will buy the airline with this balance sheet showing such a level of debt. He further recommendation that Civil Aviation Authority should cut off the routes for the other airlines so that PIA could generate profits while inducting ore aircrafts to its fleet. Dar said that PIA cannot move forward with this balance sheet. However, PIA chairman Nasser N. S. Jaffer said marketing was the fundamental problem that lies within the company. He said that the airline needs time and money to improve things. He said PIA was making improvement. The committee decided to meet again on next Monday for holding detailed discussion.