" Aik Wazeer Njkari Ne Kaha Tha PIA Masla Hai Aik Rupay Mein Bhi Beech Deingay," Sabiq CEO PIA

ARY NEWS

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00:00One thing that should be kept in mind is that the privatization of PIA is under a lot of constraint.

00:08The last few years were not good for PIA.

00:13PIA restrictions were imposed on European sectors.

00:18Other than that, PIA faced a lot of problems.

00:21What year are you talking about, Mr. Musharraf?

00:24Mr. Musharraf, what year exactly did this start?

00:27Are you saying that the last few years were not good for PIA?

00:31If you look at the last five years,

00:34the recent memory shows that the reputation of PIA as an airline was damaged.

00:42Previously, the reputation of PIA was not as good as it is now.

00:47But in the last five years, the restrictions imposed on the European sector

00:50and flights were not able to take off,

00:53the issues of training of pilots were mishandled,

00:56and in the era of PTI…

00:59Are you talking about the statement given by Mr. Sarwar in the era of PTI?

01:02Or when Mr. Arshad Malik came and the matter became controversial,

01:05or are you talking about that time period?

01:08Look, I am talking about the time period.

01:11Let me give you another example.

01:14Once upon a time, there was a privatization minister

01:17who said that PIA is such a big problem for us that we will sell it for a single rupee.

01:22So if you are privatizing and you are consistently running down the company,

01:27by the people who are very responsible,

01:30then obviously when you take it to the bidding process,

01:33then you will have to make an effort to tell the investor

01:36that this company still has such good factors in it,

01:43that if you invest, it can be properly sold.

01:46So I will repeat my question, Mr. Musharraf.

01:49Was this matter more serious after Mr. Sarwar Khan's statement or after Mr. Arshad Malik's arrival?

01:59Look, as far as Mr. Sarwar's statement is concerned,

02:02I think it was an unwise statement.

02:05And the way he spoke and did not deal with the nuances in it,

02:11it really damaged PIA and the entire aviation sector of Pakistan.

02:16Look, even in the worst cases, PIA has very good skilled people.

02:22If any airline in Pakistan's aviation industry has a lot of strength,

02:27then it is PIA who has skilled people.

02:30But PIA also has problems.

02:32And the problems of PIA are such that due to which PIA faced losses,

02:36and there was mismanagement in it,

02:39and with time, the losses kept increasing.

02:44When you are going into privatization, there should have been communication on these things as well.

02:48Right. Now tell me, at this time,

02:51what was supposed to happen, happened yesterday.

02:53And after that, the way the international media picked it up,

02:56that was another story as well.

02:58But what should be done now, Mr. Musharraf?

03:01Is it a solution if this process is made more transparent going forward?

03:07Or should more bidders be added,

03:11and the process should be made more transparent?

03:16What is the solution to this?

03:18That PIA should be privatized properly.

03:20It is a white elephant.

03:21It has to be privatized.

03:22We have no other solution.

03:24But what should be done to make this privatization reach a logical conclusion?

03:30Look, one of the two,

03:32I think the policy has to be clearly adopted.

03:35One, what you said is often heard,

03:38that PIA should be removed from the government budget.

03:43And in the current economic situation of the country,

03:47and our fiscal situation,

03:49of course, this is a very big need to be done.

03:51But one policy can be that you have to remove it from the budget,

03:55and in that case, I think,

03:56the way privatization happened just now,

03:58there are more chances of it happening,

04:00that the lowest bidder,

04:03which can be the lowest bidder in the literal sense of the word,

04:07will come to you.

04:09And one way can also be that you plan and conduct that process in such a way

04:15that we have to remove it from Pakistan's budget,

04:19but at the same time,

04:20we have to try to give Pakistan a good airline.

04:24When you do that,

04:25then you will not privatize the company in a battered state,

04:31but you will try to give some task to its management,

04:34that you fix these things in so many months,

04:37and the issues about its systems should be answered,

04:41and with this, a transparent, active communication should be done,

04:46so that investors get their confidence.

04:48Got your point.

04:49And the lowest bid, unfortunately,

04:51we have received 10 billion,

04:5310 billion is nothing in comparison to Pakistan International Airlines,

04:56whose 85 billion was kept,

05:00and 8.5 times less than that has been bid.

05:05So this is a point of concern,

05:07it is a matter that should be solved,

05:09but it is not happening.

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