Government''s ''less carrot, more stick'' plan finally works: PIA employees call off protracted strike

The Joint Action Committee PIA Employees (JACPIAE) on Tuesday called off strike after a 15-day-long protest only after leaving the national flag carrier in complete disarray and profound disorder. Speaking at a crowded press conference, Captain Sohail Baloch, chairman of JACPIAE, said that following an assurance from the government that it would address employees'' reservations regarding PIA privatisation the committee has decided to call off its strike and requested the Director Flight Operations (DFO) to resume airline''s operations on an immediate basis.
He said that representatives of JACPIAE were going to Lahore to meet CM Punjab Shahbaz Sharif and hoped that the government would take an appropriate action to ease their reservations. Replying to a question, he, without quoting any name, said that one of the persons from Aviation division played the role of a mediator to resolve a stand-off between the government and JACPIAE on PIA privatisation. He further said that PIA employees were capable to revive the airline within a year.
Paying rich tributes to his two ''martyred'' colleagues, he said that an FIR had been lodged as per the JACPIAE demand. The sources were of the view that government after issuing show cause notices to the 78 PIA employees including pilots, engineers, instructors and, senior staff, had showed its firmness that forced the JACPIAE to call off its 15-day-long strike unconditionally.
The employees'' strike, which started on January 26, 2016, had intensified and spread across the country after the killing of two PIA staffers on February 2, 2016. Enraged PIA employees had suspended PIA flight operations at all cities since February 2, 2016.
Sources in Aviation sector said that during this tug of war between the government and JACPIAE, the airline had so far suffered a colossal loss of over Rs 5 billion, which they expected to cross to Rs 10 billion mark. They said that airline would take months to restore its passengers'' confidence after the resumption of flight operations. They said that airline sold tickets amounting to Rs 8 billion per month against its expenditures of Rs 11 billion that led to a subsidy of Rs 3 billion to run its affairs.