Cabinet committee to finalize privatization of PIA: Minister

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister Aleem Khan said that the cabinet committee will finalize privatization of Pakistan International Airline (PIA), ARY News reported.

As per details, the Ministry has decided to send the matter pertaining to the privatization of PIA to the cabinet committee.

The minister urged that the privatization process of the national institutions including PIA should be improved and any delay in this regard should be avoided.

Earlier in Oct, the final bidding process for the privatisation of PIA attracted just one bid of Rs10 billion ($36 million) for a 60 per cent (pc) stake in the national flag carrier.

The government had pre-qualified six groups in June, but only real-estate development company Blue World City participated in the bidding process, placing a bid that is below the government-set minimum price of Rs85 billion.

Pakistan is looking to offload a 51-100pc stake in debt-ridden PIA to raise funds and reform state-owned enterprises as envisaged under a $7 billion International Monetary Fund programme.

The Privatisation Commission said it had asked the bidder to match the minimum bid.