ISLAMABAD: Minister of State for Privatisation Mohammad Zubair has said the process for privatisation of the Pakistan International Airlines will be formally initiated after the appointment of a financial adviser on July 22.

In an interview with BBC Urdu, he said the privatisation process would be completed by June next year. “In the meantime, we will hand over the management to a private company after selling 26 or 51 per cent PIA shares to it.”

The PIA has 16,600 employees with a fleet of 35 aircraft, but nine of them are not being used for different reasons.

PM approves plan for PIA’s revival

Mr Zubair said the government was planning to ease out 50pc surplus employees of the airline before privatisation.

He said that after the employees’ voluntary retirement the government would help them in finding jobs elsewhere.

The minister said it was not only a matter of surplus staff but their efficiency to perform the job for which they had been recruited was also a serious issue.

The airline has been on the list of the state-owned entities to be privatised since 1992, but it is the first time that the process for its privatisation is being formally started.

Published in Dawn, July 18th, 2014