Lahore (TDI): Federal Minister for Privatization, Board of Investment & Communications Abdul Aleem Khan said on Sunday that Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) is a national asset, which “could still be made profitable with better policies and proper investment.”
He made these remarks while addressing a press conference in Lahore.
“PIA is our national asset. We can’t sell it at any or low price,” the minister said, adding that the federal government will welcome any investment offer made by either the Punjab or the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governments.
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Aleem Khan added that the structure of privatization of PIA had already started before his taking charge of the Ministry and he had no authority to change that framework which had already been confirmed.
“As privatization minister, my job is to sell PIA and nothing else but the nation knows very well that every government contributed indiscriminately to bring PIA to this stage,” he said.
The minister reaffirmed that he will definitely privatize PIA and will do it in a better way.
Aleem further highlighted that during his tenure as Minister of Communication, the NHA had witnessed an increase of Rs50 billion which is a record.
“Yet, the ministry neither ran any publicity campaign, gave advertisements nor wrote articles as it was my national duty to work for the betterment of this beloved motherland to save the money of the poor people,” he added.
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Aleem mentioned that he has abolished 3500 positions in Pakistan Post Department which saved a burden of Rs2.8 billion on the national kitty.
He also added that as the federal minister, he hasn’t received a single penny in terms of salary TA/DA or any other benefit including official vehicle and staff from the government.
“Moreover, on visits to Kuwait, Russia, China and other countries, I bore all expenses from my own pocket.”
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Commenting on the national airline’s privatization again, the minister said that PIA’s privatization process was transparent and everything happened in front of media cameras and was shown live.
To another question, Abdul Aleem Khan said that currently apart from PIA, the privatization of 9 DISCOs is in the pipeline. As far as investment is concerned, the number of MOUs with Saudi Arabia alone has reached 34 and an investment of $ 2.8 billion has already surfaced through which work has already been started and investors are coming from Russia and China.
