ISLAMABAD: The government on Friday deferred the process of finding a strategic partner for PIA for six months and urged the employees to call-off their strike and solve issues on negotiating table.
Speaking at a hurriedly called press conference at the Aviation Division, Chairman Senate Special Committee on Performance of PIA Mushahidullah Khan said issues should be resolved through dialogue rather than opting for any extreme step like strikes. He said the government was making sincere efforts to revive the economic situation of the financially depressed organisations.
He said rights of PIA employees would be protected and their perks and privileges, salaries and gratuity would never be affected in the new plan for reviving the national flag carrier. He made it clear that the government would go to any extent in protecting employees’ rights but it would never accept any kind of blackmailing.
The senator said Essential Services Act would be invoked if matters were not solved through dialogue.
Answering a question, he expressed the hope that PIA employees would resume their routine work following the government’s decision and perform their duties dedicatedly to get the national flag carrier out of crisis.
At a high level meeting on Friday, it was agreed that government expects union leaders to support PIA’s management in reviving the national flag carrier so that the good work done during the last two and a half years was taken forward. The meeting observed that because of the strike by PIA employees, the airline was suffering losses worth more than Rs 500 million.
The announcement by the government came as protest by the employees entered the fourth day on Friday. The administrative affairs were disrupted due to lockdown of the offices and sit-in staged outside the head office. The employees took out a protest rally from head office to the airport, which was also attended by a large number of female workers.
Participants of the rally demonstrated at the entrance gate of the airport. Long queues of vehicles were seen whereas the passengers had to cover a distance of 1.5 kilometres by foot along with their children and heavy luggage to reach the airport.
Pakistan plans to privatise its national carrier by July, following years of crushing losses and mismanagement that have battered the airline’s reputation. The government over in December last year converted PIA s state-owned status to a ‘commercial entity’ through an ordinance, but stopped short of announcing its privatisation plans. That move sparked a fierce backlash among many of PIA s 15,000 employees.PIA’s cumulative losses were 227 billion rupees as of June 2014.
DAILY TIMES
YEMI
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