Staff strike grounds PIA flights

All domestic and global flights of Pakistan worldwide Airlines (PIA) were cancelled as strike by national flag carrier’s employees against privatisation entered a second day bringing to a complete halt its operations across Pakistan.

PIA’s chairman Nasir Jaffer meanwhile offered his resignation, though it has not been accepted by Sharif, according to airline spokesman Danial Gilani. He said two PIA flights from London and Milan landed at Lahore airport on Wednesday morning, although services of “employees of a private company” were used to handle the arriving flights.

“Two people lost their lives”.

The PIA employees unions, after weeks of token strikes, urge the government to shun its proposals to complete the partial sale of the carrier by July; however the government denies any “privatization” plan.

PIA’s management expressed “deep grief and sorrow” over the deaths of its employees, Gilani said, and asked the government to launch an inquiry into Tuesday’s incident.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif this week extended legislation to ban the airline’s employees from striking for six months, the government said in a statement.

Following the announcement that the government would privatize the national flag carrier, thousands of PIA employees took to the streets in protest against the decision.

He said the representatives were told that the decision to find a strategic partner was being deferred for six months.

He regretted some political parties are exploiting the situation for their own ends.

He said that Opposition Leader Syed Khursheed Shah has criticized invoking the Essential Services Act for PIA but in the past PPP governments invoked the same law twice.

Since Jan. 26, the strike has cost the airline about Rs1 billion ($9.6 million) in losses, he added.

PIA, one of the world’s leading airlines until the 1970s, now suffers from frequent cancellations and delays and has been involved in numerous controversies over the years, including the jailing of a drunk pilot in Britain in 2013.

To a question, he questioned what Imran Khan was aiming at by resorting to politics of agitation except creating difficulties for students, patients and workers.

He said that every person with a conscience is supportive of the fundamental right to self-determination for the Kashmiri people.

At a separate event, Rashid laid stress on resolution of the Kashmir dispute for sustainable peace in the region and beyond.