ISLAMABAD, April 21: The government on Monday informed the National Assembly that Pakistan International Airlines has suffered a loss of Rs13.1 billion in 2007. However, it said there was no plan to privatise the national carrier.

Minister of Defence Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar, replying to a question, also said that PIA had suffered an accumulated loss of Rs30.5 billion in the past three years (from 2005 to 2007) -- Rs4.4 billion in 2005, Rs12.7 billion in 2006 and Rs13.3 billion in 2007. He claimed that the rising fuel cost was the main reason behind the massive losses, besides heavy borrowings from banks and the ban imposed by the European Union. He said Rs3 billion loss was caused by the EU ban on PIA aircraft. He said that PIA was not provided any subsidy by the government like Wapda and the corporation had to meet its deficit through bank borrowings.

The minister said that the EU ban on PIA aircraft had been imposed under EU’s Safety Assessment of Foreign Aircraft Programme and as result of the ban, 20 of the 42 aircraft had been grounded and the ban remained effective for nine months.

When some lawmakers asked the minister to start at least a weekly flight between Multan and Islamabad to make it easier for lawmakers to attend parliamentary proceedings, he said it could not be done unless the house met on a daily basis.

In response to another question, the minister said that the environment ministry had spent Rs15.2 billion on 46 projects over the past three years.

About human rights violations, the minister said that as many as 34,296 complaints had been registered in the NWFP, 1,252 in Balochistan, 5,668 in Sindh and 18,746 in Punjab over the past three years.