Speaking on a calling attention notice regarding the planned privatization of PIA and PSM, PPP Senators, including Farhatullah Babar and Sehar Kamran, accused the government of deliberately selling the national entities out at throwaway prices at a time when next elections are hardly few months away. "The government is about to complete its tenure and the decision taken in haste is a deliberate and engineered to sell the PIA and PSM out at throwaway prices [possibly]...when we know that the incumbent prime minister is associated with aviation industry while his predecessor [Nawaz Sharif] with steel industry," Babar said.
Similarly, he maintained that shutting the gas supply to PSM and not paying salaries to its employees was also part of the plan while the actual focus is on the 19000 acres land of PSM. Sehar Kamran, who also staged a token walkout from the House against government's decision, apprehended that both the entities would be handed over to the incumbent Prime Minister and to his predecessor. "This is a well thought-out conspiracy...they [rulers], while exiting from the power corridors, are bent upon selling everything on the 'OLX'," she maintained.
"This is quite understood after PIA flights to New York were suspended while the Air Blue [a private airlines owned by PM Khaqan] stared its operations," she claimed, adding that PIA routes are also being given to private airlines.
Responding to the concerns of the senators, Minister for Privatization Daniyal Aziz rejected any conspiracy behind the planned privatization of PIA and PSM. He said that the privatization of PIA is being done in light of recommendations by a special committee of the parliament representing all the political parties constituted by the Speaker National Assembly after a joint a joint sitting of the parliament two years back.
Resultantly, the 1956 PIA Act was recommended by the financial advisers to be converted into a new one - the PIAC Conversion Act of 2016 aimed at providing legal basis for the privatization of the PIA as it was not available in the old Act, he said. He said that it was part of the structural benchmark of the IMF programme of 2014.
He said the entire parliament endorsed the new legislation as it was passed unanimously. He said there was no question of raising doubts when PPP was part of the whole exercise, adding that it was not a decision taken overnight and everything is being done according to the Act.
He told the House that the management of PIA will remain with the federal government, while 49 percent shares will be sold.
He said the government intends to separate transport business from the airline's assets and the entity would be owned by the federal government. In this transaction, that majority of shares and management control will remain with the government, he added. Various assets and liabilities that are not part of air transport business will be shifted to a new company which is yet to be named, he said, adding that by separating the transport business, the investment rate of PIA will be restored making the national flag carrier a positive equity company.
He also rejected the impression that the entities would be sold at throwaway prices, saying that there would be an evaluation process to take place which would determine the highest price and it would be done by an internationally certified person.
On the PSM, he also rejected the reservations of the senators, saying that Nawaz Sharif has winded up his steel business 25 years age while the machinery installed has also been removed.
He said the sensitivity of Sindh government has taken into account especially with regard to the land, adding that the land would not be transferred with its privatization. Only the 4500 acres of land surrounding the plant and machinery of the mills will be leased for a period of 30 years and there is no transfer of the land on ownership basis, he stated in categorical terms.
He further said the employees of the PSM would not be removed and arrangements would be made if those want to be re-employed.
He also urged the Sindh government and the PPP to assist the government in smooth privatization of these entities.
The House also adopted a report of the special committee on PIA to investigate the circumstances under which the alleged sale of PIA Airbus 310 to a German firm was carried out. A sub-committee headed by Senator Farhatullah Babar and also including Senator Nauman Wazir and Tahir Hussain Mashhadi had been formed to probe the matter.
The report adopted stated that the sale of Airbus was unauthorized, there were glaring flaws in the tendering process, normal procedure was bypassed and it was sold at a very low price. The blame could not be laid on just two persons and the culpability was much wider, it said. The report called for diligently pursuing an enquiry by NAB and that the Senate Secretariat be kept informed regularly of the progress init.
The report further said the former PIA CEO, a German national, be brought back to Pakistan and in this connection the Foreign Office should take up the matter with the German Embassy in Islamabad on whose guarantee and commitment the permission was given.
Earlier, Chairman Senate Raza Rabbani disallowed an adjournment motion moved by Senator Babar to discuss the dispatch of Pakistani troops to Saudi Arabia. Rabbani said that Defence Minister Khurram Dastagir has already made a policy statement in the House and a number of senators also spoke on the ssubject Pressing his point Senator Babar said the ISPR announced the decision last week after a meeting between army chief and Saudi Ambassador in Islamabad which was preceded by a 3-day visit to Saudi Arabia during which the army chief also met the Crown Prince and military commanders.
He listed two questions which he said remained un-answered and necessitated a further discussion through adjournment motion. One, whether during the recent meeting of the army chief with the Saudi Crown Prince, the Pakistani ambassador in Saudi Arabia was present and whether a representative of the FO was also present in the subsequent meeting between the Saudi Ambassador and the army chief in the GHQ. His other question was: What is the guarantee, even without disclosing troops' location that they will not be deployed along the Saudi-Yemen border in which case they can get sucked down into the conflict in case hot pursuit becomes necessary, he asked.
He said that several other questions remain unanswered including the nuanced FO statements condemning the Houthi missile attacks as threat to the Kingdom and the Holy Mosques. Responding to another calling attention notice, Daniyal Aziz said the government has issued instructions for immediate release of about 11,000 imported vehicles to ensure their prompt delivery to customers.
He said car dealers have also issued instructions that non-delivery of vehicles beyond two months will result in compensation at the time of the delivery for a number of months to check delays in delivery of already booked vehicles. Giving ministerial response to a matter of public importance, Minister for Energy Awais Leghari dispelled the impression that China is tilting towards India regarding the China Pakistan Economic Corridor, saying that the CPEC is a part of China's Belt and Road Initiative. He said that it is a bilateral project between Pakistan and China and any decision on inclusion of any third country would be taken in consultation.
Responding to another matter of public importance, Leghari said that there is no ban on further adding on renewable energy projects in Pakistan. PML-N Senator from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Nisar Mohammad announced his resignation as the member of the Senate as well as from his party, saying that he was taking the decision after PTI gave a ticket to his brother Haji Fida Mohammad.