ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) sees conflict of interest behind the proposed privatisation of the Pakistan International Airline (PIA) and the Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) at a time when only four months are left of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz government’s tenure.

“It is a malafide, ill-advised, arbitrary and ill-intentioned move to undertake such a decision at a time when the present government has only four months in its tenure. We believe that the incumbent prime minister and his predecessor have ulterior motives in privatising the two entities. There is a conflict of interest as one of them is an airline tycoon and the other a steel tycoon,” said PPP secretary general Nayyar Bukhari at a press conference here on Sunday. PPP MNA Nafeesa Shah also spoke on the occasion.

The PPP leaders said they would raise the issue in the parliament and use all options to thwart the attempt to privatise the two entities. They said that the government had deliberately created conducive conditions to facilitate privatisation of the PIA and the PSM. “Privatisation of state entities is no solution for stopping losses.”

They recalled that Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi had been chairman of the PIA and alleged that he had used that office to establish his own airline.

“The PIA has discontinued the New York operations but Air Blue has launched the operation,” the PPP leaders said.

Similarly, they alleged, Nawaz Sharif led the cartel of private steel industry and the PSM had suffered a downfall (during his tenure as prime minister).

They rejected the privatisation move and accused the government of having made plans to benefit its favourites during the privatisation process.

“It seems that the incumbent prime minister and his predecessor want to dispose of state entities to benefit their cronies, partners, allies, friends and families as has been done in the past,” the PPP leaders alleged. “They want to turn Pakistan into a retail economy with no production and basic industry. This is why exports are at a historical decline and debt and borrowing at historical high.”

The PPP leaders also alleged that the PSM had been deprived of gas supply since 2015, at a time when the production was 65 per cent. “The government has deliberately made the PSM to suffer to pave the way for its privatisation,” Mr Bukhari alleged.

During the PPP rule, former president Asif Ali Zardari had signed a memorandum of understanding with Russia to revive the PSM but the PML-N government did not pursue it, he said.

In reply to a question about large-scale induction of employees in the PIA by the PPP government, Nafeesa Shah said that at present there was a shortage of staff in the airline instead of redundancy. “The narrative of PPP hiring employees is a fake one. Even today, every flight is running with short crew,” she said.

Mr Bukhari alleged that the name of German chief executive officer of the PIA, Brend Hildenbrand, was removed from the Exit Control List and he was given safe passage by the then interior minister Chaudhary Nisar Ali Khan at the behest of Mr Abbasi.

The present CEO of the national flag carrier had no experience in aviation management, he said. “He is the fourth CEO to be appointed in the PIA during five years. There are no base managers in Islamabad, Peshawar and Lahore,” he added.

Mr Bukhari said that every week, more than 600 flights were being given free access to Pakistan which had reduced the PIA’s market share to 25 per cent from 45pc during the last four years, resulting in a loss of market share amounting to $3 billion per year.

Published in Dawn, February 19th, 2018