The Sindh High Court’s constitutional bench has directed a federal law officer to inform it whether or not privatisation of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has been challenged before the Supreme Court.
The direction came on petitions against the proposed privatisation of the PIA. The SHC’s three-member bench headed by Justice Mohammad Karim Khan Agha directed the federal law officer to inform the high court whether or not the privatisation matter of PIA had been challenged in the Supreme Court and adjourned the hearing till January 21.
One of the petitioners, Samira Mohammadi submitted that she wanted to amend the petition. The bench directed the petitioner to file the application before the office of the court. The PIA Employees Union and other citizens had submitted in the petitions that the federal government was taking steps to privatise the PIA and for this purpose amendments were made to the PIA (conversion) Act 2016.
The petitioners had submitted that the amendment to the PIA Act was made in 2023 just for illegal cancellation of shares and fresh issuance of shares without due course and requirement of the law, which would allow a friendly takeover of the PIA by a private company in violation of the Article 18(c) of the Constitution.
The SHC was told that a private party would be handed over the monopoly business of the government of Pakistan, which employed best technical workers, pilots, engineers and other technical staff.
They submitted that the PIA was a public entity and could not be sold by the government. They said that it was likely that the PIA would be handed over to a foreign entity and the matter would be out of the jurisdiction of the court and would fall within the ambit of international courts.
The petitioners argued that the national security of the country would be seriously prejudiced in case the matters of the PIA, which was a strategic asset, were discussed in foreign courts. The high court was requested to declare the proposed privatisation of the PIA in respect of sale of share and management control of the airline as unlawful.
Earlier, the Privatisation Commission had informed the high court that the proposed privatisation of the PIA was in the interest of the public, as instead of winding up the business of the PIA, it should be privatised.
The Privatisation Commission had submitted that the privatisation of the PIA was approved by the federal cabinet on August 7, 2023, besides the government of Pakistan had not made a decision regarding the cancellation of shares of the PIA or issuance of right shares.
The commission’s deputy director had submitted that the PIA had on September 15, 2023, said that it had been experiencing a monthly shortfall of no less than Rs12.77 billion with other additional losses of Rs713 billion as per its financial statement in June 2023, which showed a considerable burden on the public exchequer to arrange funds and the government was unable to sustain further losses and provide funds in billions to the PIA anymore.
The official had submitted that the approval of financial structure of the PIA’s privatisation was in the pipeline, while the scheme of arrangement for restricting and privatisation of the PIA along with its ancillary modalities was approved and would be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan.
