NEW DELHI: The privatisation of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) in 2025 halted the airline's daily operational haemorrhaging but at a high moral and fiscal cost, a report has said, adding that it has come at the expense of the taxpayer.
According to a report in The Express tribune, the official announcement that the “Arif Habib-led consortium won a 75 percent stake in PIA with a bid of PKR 135 billion, is misleading, and deceptive”.
Dr Mohammad Zubair Khan, former Pakistan Minister of Commerce who worked at the IMF, writes that the transaction is structured such that “most of the total bid of Rs 135 bn never reaches the seller’s (government) pockets”.