PIA –Turnaround or Turnforme?

To most people these days P I A stands for (Perhaps It will Arrive). An airline that used to be in the top 10 airlines and has helped develop 35 international airlines including Emirates and Singapore airline has become a symbol of what all ails this country.

That it needs to be dealt with is obvious; that it needs massive surgery is indisputable; that there has to be a crisis management plan is inevitable; But to simply cut it into 2 parts and dump the rubbish in one and sell off the other is a plan doomed for expediting its nosedive.

Whenever you sell off an asset you must make it marketable by improving its productivity. What ails PIA is corrupt and incompetent leadership. What will happen by selling it off at this stage is that it is an asset that will only get you a highly discounted market value. If it is sold off to let us assume another airline, what will they do? They will give it visionary and competent leadership who will change its operations and make it viable. Why is not possible to do it before sell off?

The reason is the same as was during PPP tenure. Appointments are still not on merit. PML N appointed Shujaat Azeem brother of Tariq Azeem as advisor to PIA. This gave rise to a scandal of having his own company Royal Air Services being a beneficiary; Which provoked a Suo Moto from Chief Justice to remove him. Nargis Sethi’s appointment as Aviation Secretary has again been challenged by the court as totally without merit. Rashidullah brother of Mushahidullah has been appointed North American head to replace Yaseen friend of President Zardari.

The most alarming factor is that Prime minister Nawaz Sharif has said the privatization will be modeled on PTCL sell off to Eitesalat, which till date, has been termed as controversial. According to some sources PTCL was sold off at a discounted rate of 80% to its real value robbing off the exchequer of billions. Even the payment promised by Eitesalat was delayed consistently with constant compromise on terms totally favouring them.

The best turnaround plan would be to carry out an operation clean up at the top first. Bring professionals at the helm from other airlines, outsource certain skills not available, develop a culture of merit and performance leading to first cutting off losses and then going profitable before selling it off. The biggest example of this is Pakistan Steel turnaround that earned profits of 8 billion in 2008 under a competent leadership and as cronies were appointed it became a bankrupt organization. Without this PIA will be unfortunately known as Pathetic In the Air.

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