ISLAMABAD: The government has received a request from bidders to delay a final offer for the state-owned Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), an official confirmed on Tuesday, saying the process will be finalized on a “mutually agreed” date.
The government last month selected six companies qualified to bid for the national air carrier out of a pool of eight after receiving expressions the interest. Pakistan plans to sell more than 51 percent stakes in the loss-making airline as part of the economic reforms suggested by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a fresh $7 billion loan program.
“We have received a request from the pre-qualified bidders to delay the process as they wanted to get hold of some additional information on the airline before making a final deal,” Dr. Ahsan Ishaq, a spokesperson for the privatization ministry, told Arab News.
“The privatization of PIA will definitely take place, as mutually agreed date for the process is being worked out with the bidders,” he continued.
As per the ministry, the pre-qualified bidders include Air Blue, Arif Habib Corporation, Blue World City, Fly Jinnah, Pak Ethanol (Pvt) Consortiums and YB Holdings Consortiums.
The government was initially planning to seal the deal on the country’s Independence Day, August 14, which was now expected to be delayed by “some weeks.”
The bidders have been waiting for PIA’s latest audited accounts, aircrafts lease agreements and a clarity on the flights to Europe that are currently banned.
Official data available with Arab News reveal there are 88 commercially operated state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in Pakistan, with their collective losses reaching Rs730.258 billion ($2.61 billion) in the fiscal year 2022 (FY22).
The top ten loss-making entities, including PIA with Rs97.5 billion, the National Highways Authority at Rs168.5 billion and the Peshawar Electric Supply Company Limited with Rs102.2 billion, accounted for a cumulative loss of Rs650.197 billion ($2.33 billion).
In contrast, the remaining enterprises reported combined losses of Rs80 billion ($286 million) during the same fiscal year.
Dr. Ishaq disclosed that PIA’s cumulative losses alone had surpassed Rs800 billion ($2.86 billion), with the total asset valuation of the airline standing at approximately Rs160 billion ($572 million).
“Some weeks of delay in the final bidding of the PIA on request of the bidders will not affect the overall privatization process,” he added.

ISLAMABAD: A main coalition party in Pakistan’s federal government, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), on Tuesday petitioned the Supreme Court against its earlier judgment that jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party was eligible for extra reserved seats in parliament.

Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party candidates contested the Feb. 8 general elections as independents after the party was barred from the polls and though these independents won the most seats, the election commission ruled they were not entitled to their share of reserved seats in national and provincial assemblies for women and minorities since these were meant for political parties only. The seats were then allotted to other parties, mostly from Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s ruling coalition. 

However, the Supreme Court ruled on July 12 that the PTI was entitled to its share of reserved seats, ramping up pressure on weak coalition. Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party subsequently filed a review petition against the Supreme Court’s verdict. 

“It is respectfully prayed that the review petition may kindly be accepted [...] and the short order by the court may graciously be reviewed and recalled,” the PPP’s petition read. “Further in the interim it is respectfully prayed that operation of the short order [...] passed by the court may be graciously stayed or suspended.”

In the National Assembly of Pakistan, political parties are allocated 70 reserved seats — 60 for women, 10 for non-Muslims — in proportion to the number of seats won in general elections. This completes the National Assembly’s total 336 seats. A simple majority in Pakistan’s parliament is 169 out of 336 seats. Likewise, there are reserved seats in all four provincial assemblies that are distributed on proportional basis among the winning parties.

In a statement sent to media after the July 12 SC ruling, the PTI said 86 PTI-backed returned candidates in the National Assembly and 107 in the Punjab Assembly, 91 in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly and 9 in the Sindh Assembly were now “entitled to be counted for the purpose of election to the reserved seats on the basis of proportional representation.”

It is expected that the PTI could get up to 23 reserved seats if the SC judgment is implemented. While announcing the July 12 verdict, the court gave the PTI 15 days to submit its list of candidates entitled for reserved seats to the election commission.

Last week, the election commission said it would enforce the Supreme Court’s verdict on reserved seats but had asked its lawyers to determine if there were areas where it needed the court’s further guidance.