ISLAMABAD: As the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) is running into Rs6 billion losses per month, Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday ordered restructuring of the national flag carrier to diminish burden of its losses on people.

Presiding over a meeting on aviation in the backdrop of the recent PIA plane crash in Karachi that had claimed about 100 lives, the prime minister said: “Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the country’s economy is facing difficulties and the people have had to bear the burden of billions of rupees loss on a monthly basis suffered by the state-owned entities.”

According to an official press release issued by the Prime Minister Office (PMO), the prime minister issued directives to bring down expenditures of the national flag carrier and focus on increase in its income, financial resources and upgrade of its fleet.

He also directed to utilise trillion of rupees domestic and foreign assets of PIA through a complete transparent and clear manner. “The assets should create financial resources for the organisation instead of becoming a burden on the general public,” he added.

The prime minister was apprised that during the last 12 years ten heads of the PIA had been changed.

Presenting a detailed briefing to the prime minister, PIA’s Chief Executive Officer Air Marshal Arshad Malik said in the prevailing situation, the national flag carrier was running into loss of around Rs6 billion per month.

He said Rs 24 billion was being spent yearly on the payment of salaries to PIA’s 14,500 employees alone.

The CEO said lengthy litigation was one of the hurdles in the way of reforms in PIA as due to the legal cases, he too could not carry out his duties for a period of three months out of his 16-month tenure.

“Due to such issues, the reforms process in the organisation was badly suffered,” he added.

Mr Malik apprised the prime minister about the progress regarding investigation into the Karachi plane crash, handing over of bodies to their bereaved families and payment of compensation amount to the heirs of plane crash victims.

The meeting was attended by Minister for Aviation Ghulam Sarwar Khan, Minister for Information Senator Shibli Faraz, Adviser on Reforms Dr Ishrat Hussain, Special Assistant retired Lt Gen Asim Salim Bajwa and other senior officials.

A timeline for restructuring of the PIA and a comprehensive roadmap over reforms and implementation was also submitted before the prime minister.

The CEO of the national flag carrier said due to the prevailing situation, the airlines industry throughout the world had been affected and reforms in that regard, were being carried out in the organisation.

Published in Dawn, June 9th, 2020