Parliamentary Support Sought to Shut Down Loss-Making and Bankrupt PIA

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Parliamentary Support Sought to Shut Down Loss-Making and Bankrupt PIA

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PM’s adviser asks Senate body to ‘shut down’ PIA

JAMAL SHAHID

ISLAMABAD:
The government on Thursday sought support from lawmakers across party lines to declare the loss-making Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) ‘bankrupt’ and eventually shut it down.

Speaking before the Senate Special Committee on the Per­formance of PIA, Prime Minis­ter’s Adviser on Aviation Sardar Mehtab Abbasi said: “Such a recommendation from a parliamentary committee will help the government take the difficult decision that it is otherwise hesitating to take.”

The committee, which met to discuss the status of its recommendations to overhaul PIA, also took up the incidents that had occurred over the past month that had given a bad name to both the national flag carrier and the country.

Mr Abbasi laid three options before the committee: letting the national flag carrier run the way it was, operating in loss; declare it bankrupt and shut it down; or, restructure it.

“We are trying to restructure PIA, but it is an extremely difficult task,” he said, arguing that PIA lacked discipline, top-quality management, ethical and professional officers and a “sense of ownership”.

However, committee chairman Mushahidullah Khan, who belongs to the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), said the body was not in favour of shutting down PIA altogether.

“We believe that a few good officers at the top could restore PIA’s lost glory,” he said.

But Mr Abbasi countered, saying: “Top quality people do not come to PIA anymore.”

Nonetheless, the members agreed that recommendations given by the committee and approved by the house could help turn PIA around.

In its recommendations the subcommittee has demanded that the present Board of Directors be dissolved on account of their inefficiency.

But the discussion took a different turn when the adviser asked members not to bind PIA with their recommendations.

“PIA should be run under business models, keeping in view the challenges facing the industry. It cannot run on recommendations that will limit PIA’s flexibility to adopt the best industrial practices,” Mr Abbasi said.

But Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Senator Sherry Rehman cautioned him that rejecting the committee’s recommendations would be tantamount to undermining parliament.

PML-Functional Senator Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah also observed that their recommendations were binding under the Constitution.

“Any observations should have been conveyed to the committee two months ago, when the recommendations were sent to the concerned ministry for feedback. The 60-day time to raise objections over the recommendations has now expired,” he said.

This viewpoint was echoed by the committee chairman, who said the recommendations were final and irreversible under law, but also assured Mr Abbasi that his observations would be conveyed to the Senate chairman.

Other issues

The committee also asked PIA for details of actions taken against the “sleeping pilot” on flight PK785 and the captain of PK853, who had invited a Chinese woman into the cockpit.

Acting PIA CEO Nayyar Hayat said the “sleeping pilot” had been issued a show cause notice for napping for around an hour in business class.

But this account was disputed by the chairman, who observed: “We know that the pilot slept for two and a half hours. You have failed to take proper disciplinary action against the pilot concerned... merely suspending him is insufficient”.

The committee was equally displeased with senior PIA management for failing to penalise the pilot who invited a Chinese woman into the cockpit soon after the aircraft took off from Tokyo, earlier this month.

The meeting was told that the Chinese woman remained in the cockpit after the aircraft had landed in Beijing, until fresh crew members replaced the old team.

Senator Sherry Rehman asked Mr Hayat if the pilot had a history of misconduct and whether he was a “sexual predator”, whose crew was scared to fly with him.

The acting CEO conceded that the pilot had a history of sexually harassing the cabin crew, adding: “There is also an active case against the pilot of fake degree. The matter is in court”.

This incensed Senator Rehman, who alleged the PIA officials were protecting the pilots in both cases. She demanded that Sardar Mehtab Abbasi sack both PIA officials for incompetence.

Aviation Secretary Irfan Elahi also told the committee that the British government had not officially shared details items seized from PIA flight PK785.

“The Pakistani mission in London has been involved to request the British authorities to share their findings,” Mr Elahi said.

Source: DAWN
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Mansoor Mela
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Re: Parliamentary Support Sought to Shut Down Loss-Making and Bankrupt PIA

Post by Mansoor Mela »

What we need to shut down is the so called "open sky" policy. Which was softly introduced by the present PM in 1990 when he became PM for the first time. EK was then 5 years old and was just beginning to get deliveries of its own planes and they were looking circumvent the traditional methods of Aviation Bilatrrals. PIA got ruined from Islamabad and not Karachi. And the solution lies in Islamabad too.
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Re: Parliamentary Support Sought to Shut Down Loss-Making and Bankrupt PIA

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Mansoor Mela wrote: Fri May 19, 2017 12:26 pm What we need to shut down is the so called "open sky" policy. Which was softly introduced by the present PM in 1990 when he became PM for the first time. EK was then 5 years old and was just beginning to get deliveries of its own planes and they were looking circumvent the traditional methods of Aviation Bilatrrals. PIA got ruined from Islamabad and not Karachi. And the solution lies in Islamabad too.
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Re: Parliamentary Support Sought to Shut Down Loss-Making and Bankrupt PIA

Post by faisal-777 »

Do you think PIA can cover the gap right away that might be created by slashing on open skies?
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Re: Parliamentary Support Sought to Shut Down Loss-Making and Bankrupt PIA

Post by Mansoor Mela »

It took 27 years of abuse from its owners to reach this stage. However PIA will start to improve immediately if our PM says this sentence..." Pakistan seeks to restore balance of trade in Aviation sector with our brotherly Gulf countries." And then mean it.
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Re: Parliamentary Support Sought to Shut Down Loss-Making and Bankrupt PIA

Post by Pakistan-1 »

Even if they shut PIA down who will fill the gap left by its exit? Especially on Domestic and Socio Economic Routes ?
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Re: Parliamentary Support Sought to Shut Down Loss-Making and Bankrupt PIA

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faisal-777 wrote: Fri May 19, 2017 5:42 pm Do you think PIA can cover the gap right away that might be created by slashing on open skies?

Why not? When ME3 flights cut down from 10+ a day, PIA and other carriers will be able to pull in those extra pax quite easily.
Competition is good, but this is unfair. It's Pakistani airlines' birth right to have the upper hand in their own nation.
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Re: Parliamentary Support Sought to Shut Down Loss-Making and Bankrupt PIA

Post by Amaad Lone »

PIA needs to implement the plan made a couple of years ago to create PIA 2.

Take 6,000 employees and the 35 aircraft and start a new airline with debt limited to the fleet.

Then the remaining 8,000 employees plus the "TOXIC" debt needs to be given to another company along with the hotels.

The toxic loans and some form of gold handshake should be paid off by selling the hotels or any other assets possible.

A lean PIA can survive code sharing with airlines like THY out of Istanbul for Europe.

New York and Toronto should remain with PIA along with UK routes and Far East to be code shared with an airline out of Bangkok or Kuala Lumpur.

Unless this is done PIA as we know will cease to exsist.

Our government cannot run an airline losing 3 billion rupees a month just to keep 18000 employed.
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Mansoor Mela
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Re: Parliamentary Support Sought to Shut Down Loss-Making and Bankrupt PIA

Post by Mansoor Mela »

Well, that was the plan, wasn't it? To implement this I'll founded plan The PIAC ACT of 1956 was abolished. Two innocent PIA employees were shot dead. Then what happened to the Grand Plan? PIA like any business needs growth to survive. It just needs a level playing field so it can recapture it's market share. It is incomprehensible that the flag carrier of a 220 million country is struggling. The only way this is possible is if the country"s Aviation Policy is not conducive to the local aviation development. The present government has been grappling in the dark for the past four years to find a solution, with nothing to show for.
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Re: Parliamentary Support Sought to Shut Down Loss-Making and Bankrupt PIA

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Mansoor Mela wrote: Sat May 20, 2017 12:21 pm Well, that was the plan, wasn't it? To implement this I'll founded plan The PIAC ACT of 1956 was abolished. Two innocent PIA employees were shot dead. Then what happened to the Grand Plan? PIA like any business needs growth to survive. It just needs a level playing field so it can recapture it's market share. It is incomprehensible that the flag carrier of a 220 million country is struggling. The only way this is possible is if the country"s Aviation Policy is not conducive to the local aviation development. The present government has been grappling in the dark for the past four years to find a solution, with nothing to show for.
Mr. Mela what you are trumpeting here with regard to impacts of Middle Eastern carriers on local airlines maybe true to some extent but it is just a small part of the problem. The major problem is the fact that PIA is plagued by incompetence, mismanagement and corruption. This is not the overstaffing and as you said in one of your posts that staff to aircraft ration can be improved by growing the fleet size, however you don't seem to be proposing cures for the chronic illnesses of PIA I mentioned above. While all the major airlines of the World have abandoned Pakistan it seems to be an absurd idea to put restrictions on the remaining quality carriers which are catering for the international travelers of the country and that too mainly for sustaining the employment of circa 20k people a majority of which are sifarshi's, thugs, corrupt and smugglers [-X
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Re: Parliamentary Support Sought to Shut Down Loss-Making and Bankrupt PIA

Post by Mansoor Mela »

Incompetence and corruption etc are not killing PIA. There are plenty of competent people In PIA and although it's not totally corruption free, no major scandals involving PIA employees have come forth. Right now the airline is debt ridden and is facing major solvency issues. It's existence as a going concern is in real danger. I firmly believe ASA's between Gulf states and Pakistan are totally lopsided in their favour and it is in interest of Pakistan to review and rationalise them.
Unless this is done, you can continue to throw good money after bad, but it will keep disappearing in this bottomless pit
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Re: Parliamentary Support Sought to Shut Down Loss-Making and Bankrupt PIA

Post by pk363 »

Mansoor Mela wrote: Sat May 20, 2017 5:54 pm Incompetence and corruption etc are not killing PIA. There are plenty of competent people In PIA and although it's not totally corruption free, no major scandals involving PIA employees have come forth. Right now the airline is debt ridden and is facing major solvency issues. It's existence as a going concern is in real danger. I firmly believe ASA's between Gulf states and Pakistan are totally lopsided in their favour and it is in interest of Pakistan to review and rationalise them.
Unless this is done, you can continue to throw good money after bad, but it will keep disappearing in this bottomless pit
Ok if you prefer to live in denial mode than up to you, good luck and good day