Bakamaal Logon Ki Lajawab Service Ko Koi Khredar Kyun Nah Mil Saka?? PIA Sabiq CEO Ki Ahem Guftagu
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00:00Is this the wrong way to run, manage and privatize PIA?
00:09PIA's privatization could have been better.
00:16Especially when PIA's privatization was announced last year,
00:23two private firms were hired.
00:28One had to restructure PIA and prepare it for privatization.
00:34They were also planning to bring in big international investors.
00:43Another firm had to make a communication effort to bring in investors.
00:50I think these two things did not go as planned.
00:57I think this is the reason why yesterday's bid was much lower than expected.
01:05Mr. Musharraf, please tell me where was the Privatization Commission in this situation?
01:11The people who had submitted their documents to bid,
01:17were those who were from the aviation industry.
01:22The last bidder bid for 10 billion instead of 85 billion.
01:27And he bid for 10 billion, who had no experience in the aviation industry.
01:32Some companies' documents were refused on the basis that they do not belong to the aviation industry.
01:41Where did this come from?
01:44You are right that the sole bidder did not belong to the aviation industry.
01:53And the amount of money they announced,
01:57did not seem to be of any serious interest to PIA.
02:04The second question that arises is,
02:07why couldn't good bidders keep their interests intact in the first place?
02:13I think the reason for this is that the privatization process did not go as planned.
02:22And we will have to see what issues were there,
02:27and with time, the big investors who could have come,
02:32lost their interest.
02:34Now, you are right that should this process have been taken to PIA,
02:40or should it have been stopped again,
02:43that if we are not getting good investors,
02:46then was there any point in taking it to a logical conclusion or not?
02:51You said,
02:52Mr. Musharraf, I am sorry I am cutting you short,
02:54but you said that the way it was planned, it was not executed in that way.
02:58How was it planned and what were the shortcomings in execution?
03:01Where did this gap develop? Why?
03:05See, one is that in public knowledge,
03:08unfortunately, information sharing has not happened so much yet,
03:12that I can give you a definitive opinion on this.
03:16But what I have to say is that the plan was to bring in big investors.
03:22When PIA was hired by an international firm,
03:27and a good, I think respectable sum of contract amount was given to them,
03:33their job was to restructure the company and clean it in such a way
03:42that investors could come to it.
03:44If the legacy issues could not be defined completely,
03:49if the questions of investors could not be answered consistently,
03:57if there were questions on the policy consistency of the government,
04:01and because of all these reasons,
04:03investors left this privatization process one after the other,
04:10then I would say that the way it was originally planned and its ambition,
04:16this process was not executed in the same way.
04:18So my question is, you said that there is not much information in the public domain,
04:22so the gap that has come in between,
04:26there cannot be a proper mark on it.
04:29But the purpose of bidding in front of the public was that there should be more transparency.
04:35Things should come out openly in front of everyone.
04:37And if there was no transparency in the whole process,
04:41then was there enough transparency in the bidding alone?
04:47I think there should be more information sharing in the whole process.
04:52Especially when you privatize in such a situation,
04:57where there are a lot of questions, a lot of undefined issues.
05:02For example, there is no up-to-date information in my knowledge,
05:07that the PIA accounts that were made,
05:10were there any questions about them?
05:13Were there any questions about the legacy issues?
05:17What will be the treatment of PIA employees?
05:20And what will the investors be able to decide with them?
05:24Was complete information available on it?
05:27If these questions were answered in a good form of communication,
05:32then the investor should have come.
05:36One more thing,
05:39I think it should be kept in mind,
05:43that the privatization of PIA is under a lot of constraint.
05:48The last few years were not good for PIA.
05:53PIA restrictions were imposed on European sectors.
05:58Apart from that, PIA faced a lot of problems.
06:01From which year did this start?
06:04Mr. Musharraf, from which year exactly did this start?
06:07What you are saying was not good in the last few years?
06:11If you look at the last five years,
06:14then in their recent memory,
06:16there were such things that the reputation of PIA as an airline,
06:20was damaged a lot.
06:22Previously, the reputation of PIA was not as good as it is now.
06:27But in the last five years,
06:29the restrictions imposed on the European sector,
06:31the flights were not able to take off,
06:33the training issues of the pilots were mishandled,
06:36and in this way...
06:38Are you talking about the statement given by Mr. Sarwar in the PTI era?
06:42Or when Mr. Arshad Malik came,
06:44and the matter became controversial,
06:46or are you talking about that time?
06:49Look, I am talking about the time period.
06:52Let me give you another example.
06:54Once upon a time, there was a privatisation minister,
06:57who said that PIA is such a big problem for us,
07:00that we will sell it for a single rupee.
07:02So if you are privatising,
07:04and you are consistently running down the company,
07:07by the very responsible people,
07:10then obviously when you take it to the bidding process,
07:14then you will have to make an effort,
07:16can you tell the investor,
07:18that this company still has such good factors,
07:23that if you invest, then it will be profitable.