THERE is no denying the fact that PIA, once a great airline to which airlines like Emirates looked up to for guidance and help, is presently in trouble. But to be fair, this state of affairs is not entirely of their own making.

To begin with, the prime minister has been in an unnecessary hurry to privatise the airline by rushing through the ordinance to make PIA a commercial company without taking stakeholders into confidence.

This precipitous action was perhaps intended to ensure that the next tranche of IMF loan, which Pakistan badly needs, would be forthcoming. Nevertheless, the indecent hurry with which the ordinance was railroaded was one action which created a trust deficit between PIA and the government.

This mistrust apparently led PIA employees to take a rigid stance against the privatisation. If they smelt a rat, they can’t be blamed.

Threatening statements by the information minister and the prime minister added fuel to the fire.

It is a debatable point whether the Act meant for essential services can or should be imposed on a commercial company like PIA.

If the government and PIA employees shun their egos and start thinking what is in the best interest of Pakistan, the hatchet could be buried early.

S.M. Anwar

Karachi

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THE bottomline of the PIA strike fiasco is the loss of two employees’ lives and the departure of an honest, hard working and business professional chairman. No clean and honest business professional will dare lead a loss-making public sector company to turn it around. The government proved to be a total failure in handling the crisis.

If PIA is privatised in a short time, it will vindicate the employees’ stand that the government’s assurance was foul and, secondly, if not, then no chairman will take it seeing the fate of Nasser Jaffer’s departure, after nearly taking PIA to the take-off point.

Zafar Hasan Khan

Karachi

Published in Dawn, February 12th, 2016