According to newspaper reports, the Public Accounts Committee has been informed that the Pakistan International Airline is facing a collateral loss of Rs 1.93 trillion in addition to a Rs 1.61 trillion liability pending against it. At least six aircraft of the national carrier have been grounded while it has to pay Rs 1 billion per month charges on the acquired loans. The committee has also been told that the PIA incurred a loss of Rs 42 billion last year but, ironically, offering ‘a good news’ for the nation that the loss will be reduced to Rs 15 billion this year and it will further be curtailed to Rs 10 billion next year. The government has spent Rs 31 billion in the purchase of ATR aircrafts whereas Rs 130 billion have been spent under various heads. The PIA incurred a loss of Rs 24 billion under the head of currency rate exchange alone. Reports suggest the corporation obtained heavy loans on heavy interest rates and now it has to pay back a hefty amount in the form of interests.The government is mulling a bailout plan to inject Rs 288 billion in the airlines and avoid to lay off a strong workforce of 18,338 employees most which are recruited on political grounds and are already in excess to the required number of the official strength.
The government functionaries are not ready to apply their minds on the changing trends in the world economy and policies adopted by the western economies in such situations. Even there is no official airline in the United States and the private sector is on the driving seat. On another note, the ideology of Communism has not only flopped in the Soviet Union, but also in China, North Korea and Cuba which are now adopting the new ways of the market economy. Gone are the days when the state was the biggest employer, but now the corporate sector is the real engine of employment generation. In Pakistan, still the old methods are being applied and the result is zero multiplied by zero. The excessive workforce in the PIA cost the national exchequer Rs 5.5 billion and the loss is piling up. The average ratio of worldwide per aircraft is around 150 employees, but it is nearly 700 in the PIA which is one of the highest employee-aircraft ratios in the world.
It is time that commonsense must prevailed and the bailout plan should means business and not a futile exercise at the expense of the public money.
