PIA employees’ strike has literally crippled the movement of passengers and cargo by air. Whatever the strike is for and whatever shape it has taken, the situation is bad and unpardonable.

The government should take a serious step towards solving this nuisance once and for all. PIA as a corporation should be dissolved forthwith and its cumulative loss of Rs350 billion may be written off. All employees should be sent home. A new company should be floated as a public limited company with 24pc of its shares going to the private investor and 76pc to the government.

A new 11-member governing body should be formed which formulates and implements policies. The new airline may buy PIA’s offices and its airworthy aircraft. It may even hire some of PIA’s sane-minded officials and start its operations. Someone of impeccable character and high level of competence should be made its chairman.

Let the new company carry the national flag with new uniforms and everything new. Quick efforts should be made to acquire good aircraft under different leases and the fleet expanded to a feasible level. New routes, including PIA routes, may be acquired and used to begin the operations. The routes may be run on profit and loss basis.

The company will become one of the leading airlines in the world if it is given the right leadership and kept away from parasitical politicians.

H.M.

Lahore

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PIA employees’ strike reminds one of coalminers’ strike in the UK during the 1970s when Margaret Thatcher was the prime minister. That strike and its outcome changed the whole culture of the government-industry relationship not only in the UK but the whole Western world.

Governments sometimes have to take tough and unpopular decisions when the defining moment comes. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, it seems, has rightly taken the bull by the horns as did Mrs Thatcher. Let us hope the outcome is similar.

Dr Hassan Akhtar Khan

Karachi

Published in Dawn, February 10th, 2016