AS per the plan under consideration, the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) will soon find itself divided into ‘good PIA’ and ‘bad PIA’. The bad PIA will take over all the existing liabilities so that the good PIA may start with a clean balance sheet to be attractive for strategic investors and lending institutions.

The transfer of liabilities will be booked as equity in the books of the good PIA. The liabilities taken over by the bad PIA will be liquidated by the government over a period of time. The good PIA will stand on its own feet and will not be eligible for government financial support or sovereign guarantees.

The concept is good and workable, provided there is a strong, independent, professional, fully-empowered board in place, and the quota system is done away with in appointments as this has ruined the airline’s human resources over time. Senior management positions should comprise personnel with aviation experience; the management must have hire-and-fire powers like the private sector; the airline should be exempted from Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) rules; and the service rules must be revised along with rationalisation of pay and allowances.

Some of the existing unskilled staff in PIA, for example peons, are drawing exorbitant pay of Rs50,000-60,000 per month owing to periodic revisions and annual increments, while in the private sector, such employees are paid around one-third of that.

Fifty per cent of the airline employees should be permanent, while the remaining 50pc shall be on contract. The cabin crew should be hired only on a contract basis and the maximum service age should not exceed 40 years. Flying allowance payment to the cockpit crew should be on the basis of actual flying, without minimum guaranteed payment, and pension and medical facility to employees/families shall be discontinued being an unsustainable burden in the light of massive misuse of the facility. PIA should remain under essential services and union/associations should be outlawed.

The aforesaid proposals will provide a level playing field to the airline to compete with domestic and foreign airlines. It will become profitable and able to pay return against its shares; 99pc being with the federal government.

Arif Majeed
Karachi

Published in Dawn, May 26th, 2021