Parliamentarians take managing director PIA to task: National Assembly body's meeting

Parliamentarians on Monday snubbed Managing Director (MD) Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) and asked him to make professional statement instead of giving moral sermons to the committee. The MD PIA was briefing the National Assembly's Standing Committee on Finance. When asked by members of the committee as to why PIA gave share in Hajj operation to a private airline, the MD said.
"We support Shaheen and Air Blue before any outsider snatch our morsel of bread (Nawala)." Bushar Gohar came hard on MD and asked him "to speak professionally instead of making moral statements". "We are running you on taxpayers' money and you are not doing your job," she added. The committee members also pointed out stark contradictions between the statement of MD PIA and representative of Defense Ministry regarding capability of national flag carriers. MD said that the PIA was capable of managing hajj operation single handedly whereas Deputy Secretary Ministry of Defense was not in agreement with the MD statement. Official of Defense Ministry also cited fuel inefficient fleet of PIA and keeping both core and non core services, as some of the factors responsible for loss. He said that some services have been outsourced by some airlines and they were making profit.
Abdur Rashid Godal of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) said that it was simply a joke with the country that PIA hired 600 pilots for a fleet of 26 aeroplanes. "This means that 23 pilots have been hired for one plane. They are taking flights for 45 hours and drawing salary for 70 hours," he added. The MD PIA had no answer except that no new recruitment would be made against the people who would be retiring and the situation in terms of overstaffing would be off set in the next four to five years.