"Give me the same powers as of the Managing Director of a private sector entity and I will turn around the picture of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA)," stated Chairman Privatisation Commission Mohammad Zubair at a seminar on "PIA's Restructure, Reform or Privatize: The Way Ahead". He said the national carrier is a drain on treasury. "We are talking about 30 years of losses caused by the national flag carrier and we can't wait for another 30 years," he added.
He said the PIA is "Distress State Airline Syndrome" for many troubles that state-led airline faces. The purpose of its privatisation is to minimise wasteful expenditure of tax payers' money on state-owned enterprises. He said that at present the CEO is not like Air Marshal Noor Khan, "he would not accept a single employee than required in running."
"We should all learn from successes of privatisation. Quoting an example, he said that the number of employees has increased many folds in banking sector after privatisation."
Earlier, Ali Salman, Executive Director PRIME Institute said that financial crisis, over-politicised, highly unionised employees, delayed re-equipment and poor service of PIA are the causes of financial losses in the PIA. He said that British Airways was privatised in 1987, its profit increased by 41 percent one year later.