Daily Times

Punjab Information Minister Azma Bokhari on Monday said that the provincial government had “no intentions” of being party to the highly publicised bidding process to acquire the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA).

Following the failed attempt last week to sell the PIA, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government said on Friday it was ready to purchase the loss-making national flag carrier. A day later, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif stated his daughter, Punjab Chief Mini­s­ter Mar­yam Nawaz, had sought his counsel on whe­ther the provincial government should acquire the PIA or establish a new airline.

Stating that he had advised Maryam to “proceed with further consultations on the potential acquisition of the PIA”, Nawaz suggested the airline could also be purchased and rebranded by the provincial government as Air Punjab. However, on Sunday, Privatisation Minister Abdul Aleem Khan hinted at selling the national flag carrier to a private buyer with zero liabilities.

Khan said the government might devise a new framework to clear the Rs200 billion liabilities and “sell a clean PIA” to a private buyer, which may spur buyers’ interest.

Speaking to the media in Lahore today, Bokhari clarified: “The talks about the Punjab government planning to buy PIA are categorically incorrect.” She explained that Nawaz was speaking to a gathering of PML-N’s businesspeople in the United States who complained of facing problems in travelling back from Pakistan.

“There are no direct flights available,” she quoted party leaders as telling Nawaz, adding that the current “condition” of the PIA was evident.

According to Bokhari, the former premier said the topic of acquiring the national flag carrier did come up when the plan to privatise the company was announced.

“But he did not say at any point that we are going to buy it,” the information minister clarified.

“And I would like to categorically state that the Punjab government has no intention to buy PIA,” she reiterated.

However, she noted, if the provinces had the fiscal capacity, then “any provincial government can launch an airline of their own”. Bokhari added that while it was not government’s job to run businesses, it was its duty to create favourable conditions for them.

Pakistan has been looking to offload a 51-100pc stake in debt-ridden PIA to raise funds and reform state-owned enterprises as envisaged under a $7bn International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme.