Bakamaal Logon Ki Lajawab Service Ko Koi Khredar Kyun Nah Mil Saka?? PIA Sabiq CEO Ki Ahem Guftagu

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00:00Is this the wrong way to run, manage and privatize PIA?

00:09PIA's privatization could have been better.

00:16Especially when PIA's privatization was announced last year,

00:23two private firms were hired.

00:28One had to restructure PIA and prepare it for privatization.

00:34They were also planning to bring in big international investors.

00:43Another firm had to make a communication effort to bring in investors.

00:50I think these two things did not go as planned.

00:57I think this is the reason why yesterday's bid was much lower than expected.

01:05Mr. Musharraf, please tell me where was the Privatization Commission in this situation?

01:11The people who had submitted their documents to bid,

01:17were those who were from the aviation industry.

01:22The last bidder bid for 10 billion instead of 85 billion.

01:27And he bid for 10 billion, who had no experience in the aviation industry.

01:32Some companies' documents were refused on the basis that they do not belong to the aviation industry.

01:41Where did this come from?

01:44You are right that the sole bidder did not belong to the aviation industry.

01:53And the amount of money they announced,

01:57did not seem to be of any serious interest to PIA.

02:04The second question that arises is,

02:07why couldn't good bidders keep their interests intact in the first place?

02:13I think the reason for this is that the privatization process did not go as planned.

02:22And we will have to see what issues were there,

02:27and with time, the big investors who could have come,

02:32lost their interest.

02:34Now, you are right that should this process have been taken to PIA,

02:40or should it have been stopped again,

02:43that if we are not getting good investors,

02:46then was there any point in taking it to a logical conclusion or not?

02:51You said,

02:52Mr. Musharraf, I am sorry I am cutting you short,

02:54but you said that the way it was planned, it was not executed in that way.

02:58How was it planned and what were the shortcomings in execution?

03:01Where did this gap develop? Why?

03:05See, one is that in public knowledge,

03:08unfortunately, information sharing has not happened so much yet,

03:12that I can give you a definitive opinion on this.

03:16But what I have to say is that the plan was to bring in big investors.

03:22When PIA was hired by an international firm,

03:27and a good, I think respectable sum of contract amount was given to them,

03:33their job was to restructure the company and clean it in such a way

03:42that investors could come to it.

03:44If the legacy issues could not be defined completely,

03:49if the questions of investors could not be answered consistently,

03:57if there were questions on the policy consistency of the government,

04:01and because of all these reasons,

04:03investors left this privatization process one after the other,

04:10then I would say that the way it was originally planned and its ambition,

04:16this process was not executed in the same way.

04:18So my question is, you said that there is not much information in the public domain,

04:22so the gap that has come in between,

04:26there cannot be a proper mark on it.

04:29But the purpose of bidding in front of the public was that there should be more transparency.

04:35Things should come out openly in front of everyone.

04:37And if there was no transparency in the whole process,

04:41then was there enough transparency in the bidding alone?

04:47I think there should be more information sharing in the whole process.

04:52Especially when you privatize in such a situation,

04:57where there are a lot of questions, a lot of undefined issues.

05:02For example, there is no up-to-date information in my knowledge,

05:07that the PIA accounts that were made,

05:10were there any questions about them?

05:13Were there any questions about the legacy issues?

05:17What will be the treatment of PIA employees?

05:20And what will the investors be able to decide with them?

05:24Was complete information available on it?

05:27If these questions were answered in a good form of communication,

05:32then the investor should have come.

05:36One more thing,

05:39I think it should be kept in mind,

05:43that the privatization of PIA is under a lot of constraint.

05:48The last few years were not good for PIA.

05:53PIA restrictions were imposed on European sectors.

05:58Apart from that, PIA faced a lot of problems.

06:01From which year did this start?

06:04Mr. Musharraf, from which year exactly did this start?

06:07What you are saying was not good in the last few years?

06:11If you look at the last five years,

06:14then in their recent memory,

06:16there were such things that the reputation of PIA as an airline,

06:20was damaged a lot.

06:22Previously, the reputation of PIA was not as good as it is now.

06:27But in the last five years,

06:29the restrictions imposed on the European sector,

06:31the flights were not able to take off,

06:33the training issues of the pilots were mishandled,

06:36and in this way...

06:38Are you talking about the statement given by Mr. Sarwar in the PTI era?

06:42Or when Mr. Arshad Malik came,

06:44and the matter became controversial,

06:46or are you talking about that time?

06:49Look, I am talking about the time period.

06:52Let me give you another example.

06:54Once upon a time, there was a privatisation minister,

06:57who said that PIA is such a big problem for us,

07:00that we will sell it for a single rupee.

07:02So if you are privatising,

07:04and you are consistently running down the company,

07:07by the very responsible people,

07:10then obviously when you take it to the bidding process,

07:14then you will have to make an effort,

07:16can you tell the investor,

07:18that this company still has such good factors,

07:23that if you invest, then it will be profitable.

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