Daily Times

Pakistan has always had a love-hate relationship with its national carrier. Every few months or so, its administration huffs and puffs about the trainwreck that has become of an airline once considered a source of pride and slogans to offload the baggage start making rounds on social media, only to fizzle out after a couple of cycles. This time around, news reports of grounded fleet, impounded aircrafts, fuel payment disputes and unsettled dues did not prompt Islamabad to dole out a lifeline for the umpteenth time (largely because its hands remained tied by the IMF program)

Sneaky chants for the privatisation of bleeding state-owned enterprises have arisen instead. But as ordinances are being green-lighted and the caretaker setup rolls its sleeves to see the back of an airline, which has eaten up to the tune of Rs 109 billion of precious treasury in the last 15 years and is heavily burdened with bank loans, it would be a sagacious move to proceed with utmost caution. For all those making parallels with the other four airlines in the country, none of them have had to endure decades of politically motivated appointments. The appointment of inexperienced, non-professional people in the top management just because the party in command wished to pay back favours has been the proverbial final nail in the coffin of a star enterprise. Ill-advised commentary, little to no attention given to finances and embarrassing staffing scandals could not pop out of the blue and therefore, the onus of its downfall should be shared squarely by all parties that enjoyed the hot seat in the last two decades. Have we forgotten the unforgivable accusations levelled by former aviation minister Ghulam Sarwar whose jumping the gun caused a severe dent in the reputation of not just PIA but Pakistani pilots and the local aviation industry?

There might not be anything substantially wrong with the agenda of the caretaker privatisation minister Fawad Hasan Fawad as he intends to move towards an open, market-based economy but the recent bouts of scepticism have only served to kick the airline while it was already down. Nothing more. Nothing else.

Even if the state wishes to move ahead with the privatisation plan, it cannot find a suitable buyer if every ticker screams of what a humongous wrecking ball the flag carrier has become. There are already rife speculations about a certain political party orchestrating the freefall to set the seal on subsequent procurement. A need for more clarity cannot be emphasised enough regarding plans to sell off assets: their market value, anticipated buyers and whatever would become of the remaining liabilities. Unless the government establishes transparency about the future of divestments and how this transaction would serve the public interest, Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari’s shocking revelations of a new entrant in the aviation sector do carry some semblance of plausibility. *