SC withdraws order halting PIA privatisation

ISLAMABAD: The Constitutional Bench of the Supreme Court has withdrawn its order to stop privatisation of the Pakistan International Airline (PIA). The decision came while the court disposed of the case of the national carrier’s privatisation.

The constitutional bench, headed by Justice Aminuddin, heard the PIA privatisation case. During the case proceedings, the Additional Attorney General told the bench that the apex had allowed the PIA administration to recruit new professionals, but no new recruitments were made through the privatisation process.

PIA’s privatisation: sole bidder falls short of reserve price in auction

The Additional Attorney General said that the PIA privatisation process is going to be re-conducted by the commission. He informed the court that the ban on PIA flight operations has also been lifted.

Justice Aminuddin said that the rates may now be higher in the re-privatisation process. Justice Jamal Mandokhail added that by privatising PIA, is the government not violating the Supreme Court order? The court had ordered that the privatisation should be done by keeping the court in the loop.

The Additional Attorney General informed the bench that a petition had been filed in the Supreme Court to update the apex court over the privatisation process.

Justice Mandokhail said that the court approves the process and that PIA should conduct the privatisation process in a good manner. Later, the constitutional bench disposed of the case.

PRIVATISATION BID FIASCO

Earlier this year, on October 31, when the national carrier reached the end of the bidding process line, only one bidder out of the potential six had remained. The ‘Blue World City’ real estate consortium was the only one that submitted the advance payment to the Privatisation Commission, which was a necessary condition for the privatisation bid.

Sole bid for PIA formally rejected, cabinet to review next steps

However, even this bidder had proposed a price of Rs10 billion for a 60 per cent stake in the PIA, as opposed to the minimum sale price of Rs85.3 billion set by the government. By mid-November, the government had formally rejected this bid, with the decision to go through the privatisation bid all over again.