PIA ordeal continues with corporate governance, awaits BOD appointment

KARACHI: Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) suffers hard times with its corporate governance as all the major decisions are awaiting the appointment of the Board of Directors, ARY News reported on Wednesday.

The previous board of national flag career consisting of nine board members was dissolved on August 6 and ever since the flag career is without a board to make its decisions. In the absence of an incumbent board, all the major decisions for the flag career are pending the approval.

The major decisions that have been adjourned until the newly appointed board can assent it, include procurement of aircraft on lease and assigning a General Sales Agent (GSA), among others.

Another major decision is the approval of over Rs100 million expense budget for the uplift of the airline, however, until again the appointment of the board, it cannot be acquiesced.

Secretary PIA Board mailed a letter to Pakistan Stock Exchange on Sept 7. The contents of the letter comprised a request for the removal of nine ex-board members’ names from the company profile after August 6.

Read: PIA all set for IATA operational safety audit

According to the reports, the Prime Minister had set up a committee to decide the nominations for the new board. The committee comprised Aviation minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan, Secretary Aviation Division Hassan Nasir Jamy and the CEO PIA Arshad Malik.

The set of nominations approved by the committee still look forward to being sent via aviation division, the sources have confirmed.

Earlier in a separate development PIA said it has all set for the operational safety audit (IOSA) to be carried out on Monday by a designated team of International Air Transport Association (IATA).

According to a spokesperson for the national flag carrier, PIA Chief Executive Officer Arshad Malik visited all the operational installations on Friday and received briefings form heads of engineering and flight safety and other departments.