|
According to the respected daily Dawn, the proposal
to hire a foreigner was mooted by one of the directors,
Makhdoom Ahmed Mahmood, at a meeting of the board
in Islamabad recently and was endorsed by the
majority of directors including its chairman,
Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar, who is also Defence Minister.
The proposal will be further debated.
PIA, or Pakistan International Airlines, is owned
and managed by the Pakistani Defence Ministry,
which recently appointed former Air chief Rao
Qamar Suleman as its managing director.
But said Mr Mahmood, who is also member of the
Punjab Assembly, he had raised the issue of hiring
a “thorough professional from abroad”
because the national carrier could not afford
further deterioration.”
He was of the view that a foreigner would be
in a much better position to take “independent”
decisions and resist political pressures.
“In countries such as Singapore and Qatar
they have experienced foreigners to run their
national airlines. Why can’t we have one
in Pakistan?,” he asked.
Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar said he had endorsed the
proposal of Mr Mahmood because he too wanted improvement
in the PIA. “There is no harm in hiring a
foreigner if he has what it takes to turn the
national carrier around,” he said.
It may be noted that Dubai's Emirates had started
operations in 1985 by leasing two aircraft from
PIA but it appointed a foreigner (a British gentleman)
to run the airline, and today, its growth is perhaps
the world's best aviation story.
|
