The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) on Sunday reiterated that it would strongly resist and reject the decision of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government to privatize Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) and Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM).
Addressing a joint news conference at Party Media Office Islamabad, PPP Secretary General Syed Nayyar Hussain Bokhari and Dr Nafisa Shah said that the Party out rightly rejects the proposed privatization of PIA and Steel Mills by the PML-N government and will strongly resist any move in this regard in the Parliament and outside Parliament.
They said that the Party is pro labour and will not allow anyone to privatize national assets. "We believe that this arbitrary and hurriedly done action is done with an ulterior motive. We consider it is mala fide, ill-advised, ill-intentioned move to undertake such a decision with only four months prior to 2018 elections," they said.
They claimed that in the past 5 years, both Steel Mills and PIA have been made to suffer from deliberate and criminal neglect, miss-governance and corruption so as to destroy these two national institutions by the PMLN government.
"We believe both the present prime minister and the previous one have ulterior motives in privatizing the two entities. And a conflict of interest as one is a steel tycoon and the other is an airline tycoon," they said.
The present prime minister has been Chairman of the PIA, and used that office to make his own airline. Why is it that the New York airline is discontinued by the PIA but is initiated by Air Blue?
The PPP leaders said that Nawaz Sharif led the cartel of private steel industry and this has led to the downfall of Pakistan''s largest steel industry. They said that it seems that present prime minister and the former prime minister want to dispose off state assets to benefit their own cronies, partners, allies, friends and family as has been done in the past. "They want to turn Pakistan into shopkeepers and retail economy with no production and basic industry to show. This is the reason why exports are at a historical decline, and debt and borrowing historical high," they said.
The PPP leaders said that the Pakistan Steel Mills has been deprived of gas since 2015, and employees'' salaries are paid after a lag of months. Gas was discontinued at a time the production was 65 per cent, they said. "This is clearly a slow kill. Make the Mills dysfunctional, starve the employees so that there is no option in sight," they said.
Nayyar Hussain Bokhari and Dr Nafisa Shah said that China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects required much steel and iron, but instead of supporting our own basic industry, the PMLN government imported billets from other countries.
They said that PIA suffered losses during the PPP time largely on account of the very high fuel price. But despite oil prices at a historical low PIA has only continued to suffer huge losses, they said.
They said that it is estimated that more than 600 flights a week are being given free access to Pakistan, and these have reduced PIA''s market share from 45 per cent to 25 per cent in the last four years and 120,000 seats and loss of market share worth 3 billion dollars annually.
The PPP leaders said that as many as 27 landing rights were given to one airline in one day. All ground services were given to the company owned by the Aviation Adviser who became a billionaire overnight and very expensive lease agreements were made when cheaper options were available, they said.
About the premier service, they said that premier service caused losses of Rs 2.8 billion to the national airline. No business plan was floated before. There are letters available which show that prime minister himself made directions and desires with regard to Premier, they said.
They claimed that Mian Nawaz Sharif is on record saying that he would like to sell the Roosevelt Hotel. "Hildenbrand is alleged to have made a deal wherein an airworthy A-310 plane which was sold to a German company for Euro 45,000, although the same aircraft was hired by a film making company in Malta for 10 days at a cost of USD 210,000 and its book value was estimated to be $3.1 million. PIA BoD had given approval for leasing of A-330 from Sri Lankan Airlines at over $8,000 per hour although a similar aircraft had been leased by a privately registered Pakistani airline for approximately $4000 per hour," the PPP leaders claimed.
They said that PIA halted routes to Kuwait and Oman from February 1, 2018 although 130,000 Pakistanis live in Kuwait and 85,000 in Oman. They added that PIA halted its precious route to New York for the first time since 1961.
This clearly shows that the plan was to perpetuate slow death, they said.
About the PIA management, the PPP leaders said, "the present CEO has no experience in aviation management. This is the fourth CEO in 5 years and third Chairman to be appointed. There are no base managers in Islamabad, Peshawar and Lahore. Huge amounts of money are wasted on nonessential items such as uniforms of the crew, when things like spares, and in-flight entertainment should be given attention. Even that is haphazard, as presently half the airline crew is wearing old uniform and the other half the new one."
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