Islamabad: Senator Ishaq Dar, who is Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, said that the fact that Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flights to Europe and the US were canceled was due to something said by a former PTI government official.
During a Senate session, Senator Sherry Rehman of the PPP brought up a Notice of Attention about selling PIA. Ishaq Dar responded by making it clear that the process of privatizing the national airline would go forward.
Shirley Rehman was worried about the state of PIA’s plan to privatize, asking if it had been dropped or was still being worked on. She talked about how the company is currently doing, saying that only 19 of its 34 planes are flying and the rest are still on the ground.
She also said that an ad for PIA’s return trips to Paris was embarrassing. Rehman asked the ad firm that made the false ad and the official who was behind it a lot of questions.
Ishaq Dar replied that it was true that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had asked for a review of the ad. He said that the ad, which showed a PIA plane near the Eiffel Tower and said “We Are Coming,” sent the wrong message.
Ishaq Dar also gave reports on the state of the fleet. He said that 6 Boeing, 11 Airbus, and 7 ATR planes are currently in service, while 6 Boeing planes are being fixed.
In response to the question of flight delays, he said that a past minister’s words had caused European, UK, and US officials to limit Pakistani flights by saying that Pakistani pilots were not prepared. Dar said that the PDM government had set up a group to deal with the problem and that more work would be done during Nawaz Sharif’s government.
He also said that the controversial comment cost the country 87 billion paise a year and that the Cabinet had asked for an investigation into the issue. Dar also said that he had talked about the problem with the Foreign Secretary of the UK. As a result, the European Union ended the ban on PIA flights.
When talking about privatization, Dar stressed that the process would be open and move quickly. He said that the business sector of Pakistan would be the best group to run PIA from now on.
Dar also said that work is being done to get planes between Pakistan and the UK back on track and that a team should be there by the end of January. He said that he hoped flights to the UK would start up again in March or April and that political efforts are being made to make this happen.