What else could an embittered PM have told the participants of a high-level meeting on the performance of the national airline the other day? Underscoring the need for devising a comprehensive business plan to revive Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) as a profitable institution, he pointed out that the national flag carrier has been made a liability due to mismanagement and corruption for which taxpayers have to share the burden, although the PM heaped praise on the performance of the current PIA management headed by Air Marshal Asad Mahmood Malik. That the mega SOEs such as PIA and Pakistan Steel do throw up a big challenge for the PTI government is a fact. There seems to be however no solution in sight insofar as the issue of ailing government-owned entities is concerned. PIA has no solution; PSM too has no solution. The PTI government is required to prove that its approach to SOEs is markedly different from those of its predecessors'.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2019