PIA: time to call ‘Time’

The state and predestine of a inhabitant carrier, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), has been a theme of visit criticism in these columns over a years. Maintaining a clarity of confidence per a destiny of this magisterial password has valid increasingly difficult; and some-more than once observers have likely that a finish of a highway was in steer for PIA — nonetheless it was not to be and a airline staggered from predicament to crisis. Yet again it appears that an finish is in steer as a Aviation Division has suggested that a debt weight has forced a airline to a margin of default — a financial eventuality that is critical for a miss of options future-wise other than bankruptcy.

So bad is a stream predicament that PIA is eating itself alive, literally eating a duties and taxes that are collected from sheet sales or deducted from a salaries of employees — who contingency be nonplussed during anticipating themselves co-opted into bailing out a falling airline. The state of PIA has reportedly ‘annoyed’ financial apportion Ishaq Dar, nonetheless a news can frequency come as a warn to him and if it did afterwards he does not have his eye on an critical ball.

The Aviation Division is looking for Rs24.94 billion to seaside adult loan installments and mark-up between Jan and Jun this year. This can't — contingency not — continue. The arrangement of nonetheless another set of committees to ‘solve’ a innumerable problems is only kicking them into a prolonged grass, an forgive not to take tough decisions. No matter that PIA had a ‘better’ year in 2016, no matter that it is inducting dual new aircraft and no matter that a supervision is earnest improved days to come — no matter all of that. It is time for a sovereign supervision to call ‘Time’ on PIA since a quack-doctoring has not worked — again. It is going to be bloody, unpleasant and politically annoying nonetheless adequate unequivocally is enough. Pull a plug.

Published in The Express Tribune, Jan 27th, 2017.

Like Opinion Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to accept all updates on all the daily pieces.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>