{"id":13363,"date":"2023-10-12T04:29:05","date_gmt":"2023-10-12T04:29:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/cabinet-okays-pia-sale-amid-skyrocketing-losses\/"},"modified":"2023-10-12T04:29:05","modified_gmt":"2023-10-12T04:29:05","slug":"cabinet-okays-pia-sale-amid-skyrocketing-losses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/cabinet-okays-pia-sale-amid-skyrocketing-losses\/","title":{"rendered":"Cabinet okays PIA sale amid skyrocketing losses"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\n<p><strong>\u2022 Demands immediate halt to Gaza bombing; finalises appointments to key NAB roles<br \/>\u2022 Okays extradition requests for two Pakistanis<br \/>\u2022 Solangi says polls to be held in January despite weather concerns<br \/>\u2022 Registered Afghan refugees protected, only illegal immigrants to be repatriated<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>ISLAMABAD: The federal cabinet on Wednesday gave the go-ahead for privatising Pakistan Inter\u00adnational Airlines (PIA), whose total losses have increased to Rs750 billion.<\/p>\n<p>It also strongly condemned Israel\u2019s aggression on Palestinians, calling it a blatant violation of UN resolutions and demanding an immediate halt to the indiscriminate bombing of Gaza.<\/p>\n<p>The cabinet also approved the appointments of former Lahore High Court judge Sohail Nasir as deputy chairman of the National Accountability Bureau and Syed Ehtesham Qadir Shah as its prosecutor general for accountability. Both positions fell vacant last month. The appointments were later notified.<\/p>\n<p>The cabinet meeting, presided over by caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar, also decided that no genuine and registered Afghan refugee would be repatriated, and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1779767\">ongoing crackdown<\/a> would only target those staying illegally in Pakistan.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to reporters after the cabinet meeting, caretaker Information Minister Murtaza Solangi said the cabinet ratified the decisions taken in the meetings held on Jan 21 and 28 regarding the state-owned enterprises, including <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1776844\">PIA\u2019s privatisation<\/a>.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media  w-full  w-full  media--stretch  media--embed  \">\n<p><div class=\"ast-oembed-container \" style=\"height: 100%;\"><iframe title=\"What Is Happening With PIA? | MoneyCurve | Dawn News English\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/b1shRiEk8pA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Flanked by caretaker Privati\u00adsation Minister Fawad Hassan Fawad, Mr Solangi said the cabinet also approved a proposal to hire the services of a consortium for financial advisory to sell off PIA.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Fawad insisted on the occasion that PIA\u2019s sale was unavoidable as its total losses had shot up to Rs750bn, or Rs12.7bn per month.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPresently, the PIA fleet has 37 aircraft, of which 15 are already grounded. It means we are suffering such a huge loss only to fly 22 planes \u2014 and most of them have completed their flying life,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>He assured that no employee of the airline would become jobless in the privatisation process.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media  w-full  w-full  media--stretch  media--embed  \">\n<p><div class=\"ast-oembed-container \" style=\"height: 100%;\"><iframe title=\"Pakistan Interim Govt Approves PIA Sale | Developing | Dawn News English\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/1TOtDsG30vw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p><strong>Gaza bombing<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The federal cabinet also strongly condemned <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1780498\/gazas-sole-power-plant-shuts-down-as-israel-readies-for-expected-ground-invasion\">Israel\u2019s bombardment<\/a>, particularly targeting civilians in Gaza, besides expressing concern over the volatile situation stemming from Israel\u2019s illegal occupation, oppression of Palestinians for decades, and blatant violations of United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions in this regard, Mr Solangi said.<\/p>\n<p>The minister said the cabinet had called for an immediate halt to Israeli bombardment of civilian areas of Gaza, in addition to the lifting of a blockade of the Palestinian exclave so that its citizens could get food and relief items. The cabinet meeting also called for prompt measures to allow international aid to reach the civilians in the Gaza Strip.<\/p>\n<p>The meeting stressed the need to address the Palestine issue according to the relevant UNSC resolution and by restoring the pre-1967 status of Palestine.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Solangi said at the presser that no action was being taken aga\u00adinst Afghan citizens who had proof of registration cards and had been residing in Pakistan for the last 40 years.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe government will not act against those who have Afghan citizen cards verified by the previous Afghan government,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The Oct 31 deadline for the voluntary return only applied to those who did not have any legal document, he said, adding that thousands of illegal residents had started returning to their countries.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Solangi also backed a decision of the ECP to hold general elections in January, dismissing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1778872\/fazlur-rehman-voices-concern-over-winter-polls-in-kp-balochistan\">objections from some political circles<\/a> that polls should not be conducted in freezing weather to ensure maximum voter turnout. \u201cThe country\u2019s electoral history suggests that polls were held in extreme cold and hot weather,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Elections would be held as per the ECP schedule, he said, adding that the caretaker government would provide all-out assistance to the electoral body in this regard.<\/p>\n<p>On the recommendation of the Ministry of Interior, the cabinet app\u00adroved the extradition of two Pak\u00adistani citizens \u2014 of Shahzad Ahmed, son of Wali Muhammad Qure\u00adshi, to the UAE in a fraud case; and of Arshad Ali, son of Mazhar Ali, to Kuwait.<\/p>\n<p><em>Published in Dawn, October 12th, 2023<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u2022 Demands immediate halt to Gaza bombing; finalises appointments to key NAB roles\u2022 Okays extradition requests for two Pakistanis\u2022 Solangi says polls to be held in January despite weather concerns\u2022 Registered Afghan refugees protected, only illegal immigrants to be repatriated ISLAMABAD: The federal cabinet on Wednesday gave the go-ahead for privatising Pakistan Inter\u00adnational Airlines (PIA), [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13364,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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