PIA announces pay raise for staff

According to PIA spokesperson, the Pakistan International Airlines Board of Directors meeting decided to raise the pay scale of its staff after four years.

Supporting the decision, the PIA spokesperson said the staff of the national flag carrier were passing through crunch time due to inflation as their salaries were not raised from last four years.

The move will help in retaining PIA staff, the statement further added.

The government of Pakistan is trying to sale the PIA but the first attempt failed as it received only one bid of Rs10 bln. The government while rejecting the bid forwarded matter of the privatisation to the cabinet again.

Read more: Loss-making PIA to ‘consider’ salary raise of employees

Earlier, Federal Minister for Privatization, Aleem Khan held the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) responsible for the failed Pakistan International Airlines sale.

This he stated while expressing his views in the Senate Standing Committee on Privatization, which met under the chair of Senator Talal Chaudhry here in Islamabad.

The meeting discussed the reasons behind the lower bid for PIA sale. Aleem Khan said the process of Pakistan International Airlines privataization started on November 28, 2023, before he assumed charged as the privatization minister.

He said PIA’s losses were, Rs830 billion at the time of privatization and the process cannot be halted once it begins.

Holding Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) responsible for the PIA’s failed privatization, Aleem Khan said the body was asked to remove provision of GST on the buying of new aircraft, but they did not accept it.