Protesting PIA employees refuse to meet Aviation Advisor

The national airlines’ CBA union Air League and other employees unions of PIA, in a meeting had decided not to meet the Prime Minister’s Advisor on Aviation Shujaat Azeem and will continue their countrywide protest against the decision of privatization of the national airliner.

President of the Air League Shameem Akmal had held a meeting with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif at Karachi airport when the PM was leaving for Islamabad after his recent visit of the port city.

Akmal had expressed reservations over the Presidential Ordinance during the meeting. The prime minister had assured him that the reservations of the PIA employees will be settled through talks between the government and representatives of the employees.

The Aviation Advisor had summoned a meeting of the representatives of all PIA unions in Islamabad to discuss the employees concerns over the issue.

PIA employees bodies have refused to meet the Advisor in Islamabad and asked him to meet the workers representatives in Karachi if he wants to hold talks.

The opposition parties had also protested over a presidential ordinance accusing the government that it was working on privatization of the airlines.

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar had said the objective of the ordinance was to turn PIA into a corporate entity so that it operates in an autonomous manner.

He said the ordinance was not aimed at the privatization of PIA as was being propagated and there was also no change in its balance sheet or nature of service of the employees.