The bidding ceremony for the privatization of Pakistan International Airline (PIA) was held and the management was left in a tizzy over the offer of the sole bidder.
A ceremony was held in Islamabad to open the bid of Blue World City Consortium for the privatization of PIA where Secretary Ministry of Privatization Javed Pal and Secretary Privatization Commission Usman Bajwa, Chairman Blue World City Saad Nazir and CEO of Blue World Aviation Maysam. Raza, CEO of Blue World City Chaudhary Nadeem Ejaz was present on the stage.
Blue World City Consortium submitted the sole bid for the purchase of the airline in the afternoon, with Blue World Consortium representative Wali Muhammad also present on stage.
The Blue World Consortium agreed to the terms of the privatization and the government had set a minimum price of Rs 85.30 billion for the privatization of PIA.
The sole bidder for the privatization of PI bid only 10 billion for the 60% shares of PIA. The people on the stage also smiled at the bid, while the PIA management held their heads on the bid of the airline worth 152 billion assets and the people of the Privatization Commission were upset to see the bid.
The Privatization Commission had fixed the minimum bid for the privatization of PIA at more than 85 billion, but the bidder was given 30 minutes to revise its bid.
After 30 minutes, the bidding consortium for the privatization of PIA refused to increase the bid from Rs 10 billion and decided to stick to the bid of Rs 10 billion.
Saad Nazir said that if the government does not privatize PIA, it should be run by itself. Chaudhry Saad Nazir, the representative and chairman of the bidder consortium, Blueworld, said that the minimum price announced for PIA is too high, the difference between the minimum price and the bid given is huge. He said that PIA has liabilities of 200 billion rupees, and the new airline will be built for 85 billion rupees.
With this, the bidding process for the privatization of PIA has been completed, as per the rules, the Privatization Commission will submit the bid to the Federal Cabinet.
Earlier, a Privatization Commission meeting was held under the chairmanship of Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar. Ishaq Dar presided over the CCOP meeting through a video link from Doha. Various secretaries including the Ministers of Privatization, Finance, and Energy also participated in the meeting.
In the meeting, the distribution of 60 percent shares was approved by the Price Control Board regarding bidding. Apart from this, the details of the assets of the national airline PIA also came out.
PIA has total assets of 152 billion rupees which include ships, slots, routes, and others. PIA’s total royalty is Rs 202 billion including CAA and PSO.
PIA has to receive 16 to 17 billion rupees. The number of employees of PIA is 7 thousand 100 while more than 2400 are working on daily wages. Of PIA’s 6 Directors, and 37 General Managers, the majority are working on 2 posts. The total number of GMs of PIA is 45, 37 General Majors are performing their duties.
Privatization Commission had extended the date of privatization of PIA to October 31. The IMF had given the government till the end of September to privatize PIA. Privatization will save the government billions of rupees annually in airline losses and debt repayments.
