PIA a liability due to mismanagement and corruption, says CEO

ISLAMABAD: The Chief Executive Officer of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), Air Marshal Arshad Mehmood Malik said on Tuesday that due to mismanagement and corruption the national flag carrier had become a liability.

During a news conference on Tuesday, Malik said PIA’s management would develop a comprehensive five-year strategic business plan to turn the national flag carrier into a profitable entity and revive its past glory. “Prime Minister Imran Khan tasked us to revive the PIA as a profitable enterprise. Since taking the responsibility in October, last year we have taken some short-term measures to ensure its smooth functioning and now we are going to give a five-year long term plan in a three-month period,” he told a news conference here at the Press Information Department.

Minister for Aviation Muhammad Mian Soomro, Special Assistant to PM on Media Affairs Iftikhar Durrani and Secretary Aviation Division Shahrukh Nusrat were also present at the presser.

Arshad said that the five-year plan would undertake measures for cost saving, revenue generation, improvement and expansion of flight operations.

“Financial restructuring through government support will also be part of the plan,” he said.

He added that revival of the airlines’ past glory was a daunting task but he had full backing of the Minister for Aviation to turns its fortunes.

He further said after assuming the charge he found that PIA was a white elephant turned black hole due to several issues such as meddling of PIA Union in administrative affairs, corruption, non professional attitude and overstaffing.

“But I also found that PIA pilots, engineers and technicians were the best in the industry and they needed only ownership to harmonize their energies,” he added.