PAKISTAN’S national carrier has generated more controversy in recent times than many other state-owned enterprises. All matters ranging from the appointment of a new managing director, to his relations with employees or the board and chairman, to restructuring plans have been tainted with controversies. If the dispute over powers between the former PIA chairman and the new managing director that made headlines a few weeks ago was bad publicity for the airline, the management’s failure to fire the deputy managing director as recommended by the parliamentary committee on defence is equally damaging. Apparently, the committee had sought Salim Sayani’s sacking because of his failure to deliver what he was employed for and to justify his monthly salary package of Rs5m. Possibly, the management is not firing him because of the ‘high cost’ — equal to his salary for two years — his removal involves. The price may be high, but the intangible costs of his continuation in the job could be even higher.

Of late, the government is employing ‘professionals’ like Mr Sayani to fill top jobs in the SOEs and paying them exorbitant ‘market-based’ salaries. Ostensibly, it is done to ‘turn around’ the SOEs that have been reeling under years of mismanagement, corruption, overstaffing, political and bureaucratic interference and to make them profitable entities. Few would dispute this policy. But the problem does not lie so much in inflated salaries as in the ‘selection’ of ‘suitable’ people hired for political rather than professional reasons. If the SOEs, which are costing the country’s taxpayers Rs400bn annually, are to be restructured political and bureaucratic intervention will have to stop. This also holds true for the appointment of top managers who should be inducted on the basis of their competence alone. Only that will lead to the needed revamp of the SOEs on modern business lines.