Asif Ali Zardari Warns Against Hurried Privatization Of PIA

Former President Asif Ali Zardari has warned the government against the privatization of the PIA saying that the mysteriously hurried move on the eve of general elections was motivated not by turning around the national carrier but by making quick buck at public expense.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 17th Feb, 2018) : Former President Aasif Ali Zardari has warned the government against the privatization of the PIA saying that the mysteriously hurried move on the eve of general elections was motivated not by turning around the national carrier but by making quick buck at public expense. “Hurried and thoughtless privatization of the PIA without recourse to Parliament at this time is a crime against the people that must not be allowed; it will not be”, the former President said in a statement today. Zardari also warned the potential buyers to desist from buying the national airline in their own interest warning that they may have to face consequences of being part of a commercial undertaking based on criminal motives. Spokesperson Senator Farhatullah Babar said that the former President also directed members of Parliament belonging to the PPP to raise the issue in both the National Assembly and the Senate and expose the malafide intent behind it.

The former President said that the loss making ventures recent undertaken by PIA raised doubts whether these were deliberately designed to increase its liabilities and thereby create justification for its hurried privatization. Zardari said that during the PPP government international oil prices stood at nearly 150 Dollars a barrel which reduced to less than 50 dollars in 2015.

Like other airlines this steep fall in international oil prices should have enabled PIA to reduce its losses but instead the losses increased, he said.