Defence Minister Khawaja Asif on Wednesday said the government was satisfied with the sale of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), describing it as a transaction of great “symbolic value.”
Speaking on Geo News programme Geo Pakistan, Asif said the deal marked the first major privatisation in nearly two decades and represented a significant milestone in the government’s broader privatisation agenda.
A consortium led by the Arif Habib Group won the auction for a controlling stake in Pakistan International Airlines Corporation Limited (PIACL) with a bid of Rs135 billion following a competitive, televised process.
The sale is a key component of the government’s plan to offload loss-making state-owned enterprises and a crucial condition of Pakistan’s $7 billion bailout programme with the International Monetary Fund.
Asif said the transaction carried symbolic importance due to PIA’s troubled history, recalling how the national airline was pushed to the brink of collapse after controversial remarks by a former aviation minister in 2020 regarding pilots’ licences. The fallout led to bans by European and UK authorities, grounding PIA from its most profitable routes and severely damaging the airline’s financial health.
He said the government later restructured PIA, absorbing a major portion of its liabilities and leaving behind only nominal obligations. Against this background, Asif termed the recent sale a major success and credited the civil aviation authorities for their role in restoring international confidence, noting that PIA had resumed flights to Manchester and had permission to operate services to Birmingham, London, New York, and several European destinations, though aircraft shortages remain a challenge.
Responding to criticism over the government receiving only 7.5 per cent of the sale amount, Asif defended the arrangement, stating that reinvesting the majority of the funds into PIA enhanced its long-term value. He stressed that the state still retained a 25 per cent shareholding, calling the reinvestment an investment in a national asset rather than a handout.
Asif also blamed long-standing bureaucratic inefficiencies for losses at state-owned enterprises, calling for accountability and further privatisation to stop the “continuous bleeding” of public finances.
