Privatization of PIA inevitable: Minister

F.P. Report

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Privatization Daniyal Aziz Monday said privatization of national carrier Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) is inevitable as the government has to bear losses of Rs. 325 billion to keep the airline in operational.

Addressing a press conference here today the Minister for Privatization said the process of privatization of the PIA will be completed according to law and assured that the rights of the employees will be safeguarded at all cost. He said that the process of privatization will be in a professional and transparent manner.

Daniyal Aziz said that the government has decided to privatize all the state-owned companies that are costing billions in losses so that these losses of the government will be minised and the performance of these state owned organizations could be imporvd.

The Minister for Privatization said that the economy is burdened with over Rs 600 billion annually owing to losses of some of the leading state owned companies therefore, the government had to privatize them to save the losses.

Replying to a question the Minister said the government would treat assets of the PIA and aviation section separately for completing the process of privatization. He ruled out the criticism of the opposition that PML-N has double standards for privatization and only some of the state owned organizations are being privatized. He clarified that all those state owned organizations will be privatized which are running in losses.