KARACHI: Former chairman of Senate and a leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party Senator Raza Rabbani has said that any attempt to roll back the 18th Amendment would cost the federal government dearly.

Addressing a press conference at the Bilawal House media cell on Saturday, he said it had been proved after the victory of the Peoples Unity in the referendum of the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) that workers were against the privatisation of the national flag carrier.

“However, the PIA management is not willing to accept the referendum’s results,” he regretted.

Mr Rabbani extended his felicitations to the Peoples Unity for a resounding victory against the ruling PML-N-backed Air League in the referendum earlier this week. “The Air League could not even manage to win from Lahore,” he said.

In Thursday’s referendum, the Peoples Unity — backed by PPP, Jamaat-i-Islami and Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan — received 4,228 votes compared to Air League’s 1,888. The PTI-backed Insaf Front could only secure 78 votes.

He said the results of the referendum were proof that PIA workers would never accept its sell-off.

He said the issue of removing the country’s flag from the tail of PIA aircraft would also be raised in parliament, as it would make the national carrier lose its identity the world over. He alleged that the cost of removing Pakistan’s flag from one aircraft is $30,000. “The government is willing to splash out so much money [on the redesign], but is not ready to pay salaries to the PIA employees.”

Published in Dawn, April 22nd, 2018