The dominant United Business Group (UBG) of FPCCI on Friday said that PIA has become a liability that should be sold immediately to reduce budget deficit. The business community fully supports decision of the government to get rid of the white elephant eating up scarce resources since decades with little chance of revival, it said. Privatisation of PIA has been delayed since long and now time has come to sell this corporation to save billions which are wasted on frequent bailouts, said Abdul Rauf Alam, Presidential candidate of UBG for FPCCI.
He said the government should safeguard interests of employees of PIA and make it mandatory for buyers to continue operating flights on non-profitable domestic routes in the public interest. He said that a government preferred socialist model and nationalised many institutions which proved to be a blunder that resulted in economic chaos. Alam said that there is no justification for keeping an entity alive on bailouts which is under Rs 2 22 billion liabilities and paying billions as interest. He said that unionism has left management of national flag carrier ineffective which has resulted in unjustified 17 percent hike in salaries of the bleeding company.