PIA matters

This is reference to media reports that the NA committee held a meeting to probe into PIA's Hotel Roosevelt sale or joint venture option and that even Trump was once interested in buying it. It is important that the credentials of those appointed at helm of PIA Investments be probed to ensure that what happened in 1999 does not reoccur. This $1.4 billion asset owned by the taxpayers of Pakistan should be subjected to scrutiny by the auditor general of Pakistan (AGP). Did the PML-N/PPP or Musharraf authorize anybody to get in touch with Trump Properties? PIA under Nur Khan acquired Roosevelt on 20-year long lease in 1979, with an option to purchase at the fixed price of $36.5 million. Yet, despite this agreement, the individual who headed PIAIL in 1999 agreed to a higher price of $59.5 million. It is also a fact that while PIAIL is 100 percent owned by the federal government with the headquarters based in Pakistan, yet the BOD continues to meet abroad and its accounts have never been scrutinized by the AGP.

The government of Pakistan must wait for the market to stabilize before finalizing the Joint Venture Option while ensuring that the individual appointed by them to head PIAIL, is thoroughly probed, is a person of integrity and does not hold any dual nationality to evade accountability.

Salman Malik

Malaysia