LAHORE: The recently formed PIA board of directors is virtually no more as all the members nominated by the prime minister are reported to have resigned.
The PML-N government had reconstituted the board in the first week of last month, nominating prominent businessmen Aslam Khaliq, Mian Mohammad Mansha, Naseer N.S. Jaffer, Arif Habib, Sarfaraz A. Rehman and Imran Khan as its members.
Officials told Dawn on Tuesday that all the six nominated members had resigned, expressing their inability to give time to the national flag carrier because of their ‘heavy preoccupation’ with their businesses. “The new board will be constituted after acceptance of their resignations,” the officials added.
Malik Nazir and Yousuf Waqar are the elected members while Aviation Secretary Mohammad Ali Gardezi and Finance Secretary Dr Waqar Masood Khan ex-officio members of the board.
The sources that that after the Supreme Court declared illegal the appointments of dual national Shujaat Azeem as adviser to the prime minister on aviation and PIA board member Aslam Khaliq as acting chairman of the PIA, the other members appeared to be uncomfortable.
They said the new board had held only one short meeting in which the members had been briefed about the influence of the union and different associations. The sources also said that some members were feeling that their stature did not match this position.
An official said it appeared that nobody wanted to take pain to bail out the airline which was facing an accumulated loss of Rs160 billion. “After coming to know the ground realities, the board members might have felt that it was better to call it a day instead of facing criticism from different quarters at the end of the day,” he said.
The status of a four-member team set up by the prime minister to work on restructuring and reformation of the PIA is also unclear after the resignation of Mr Azeem. Finance Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar, Shaukat Fayyaz Ahmed Tarin and Naveed Malik are its other members. The prime minister had asked the committee to submit proposals to him at the earliest.