Muhammad Ishtiaq Qureshi, Vice President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI) highly welcomed the Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani’s announcement in the National Assembly to sack the Chairman Pakistan Steel Mills and demanded for similar purging operation in corruption-ridden  Pakistan International Airline.

He said the poor performance of National Flag Carrier is badly denting the image of Pakistan at international level apart from damaging the business and economic activities in the country.

He said the deteriorating financial condition of PIA speaks volumes of its commercial viability as the total accumulated losses of PIA have gone up to Rs.142-billion, which is unjustified for a revenue generating organization.

He said political appointments; corruption, favoritism & nepotism are the hallmarks of PIA due to which PIA has 450 employees to one aircraft as against the world average of 250 employees to the same number and it cannot be turned around without cleansing PIA of all such malpractices.

He said PIA needs to balance its operations and administration staff for improving its working as operation side is short of staff while administration side is heavily overstaffed.

He said businessmen prefer to fly with national flag carrier, but due to its poor service, they have to travel on more efficient airlines. He suggested that government should adopt an open sky policy by bringing in more private airlines to enhance competition in airline industry.

He stressed that PIA should hire local people in foreign destinations instead of sending its employees on foreign postings, that too on strong reference, which causes huge unnecessary expenses. PIA should also discontinue the practice of giving free tickets to its employees to run it on professional lines, he added.  

Ishtiaq Qureshi said PIA has imposed heavy bank guarantees on Travel Agents due to which they are unable to provide better services to customers and it should remove this condition for increasing business through Travel Agents.

It has been observed that often half of the seats in a plane are vacant but the seat seekers are informed that seats are not available which shows unprofessional approach of PIA.

He called upon the government to salvage PIA and restore its past glory by formulating a comprehensive bailout plan and inducting a true professional management to run its affairs, otherwise privatize it to bring professionalism in PIA.