KARACHI: The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has approved the restructuring scheme of the country’s national airline, the privatization ministry confirmed on Sunday, marking a significant milestone in the government’s endeavors to privatize the loss-making entity.

Pakistan has identified 25 public sector enterprises for privatization that have accumulated billions in losses, including the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), banks, hotels and power generation and distribution companies. Pakistan agreed in June 2023 to overhaul its loss-making state-owned enterprises (SOEs) as part of a deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a $3 billion bailout package. The government resolved to privatize PIA shortly after finalizing the IMF agreement. 

However, the country’s progress in privatization has been stalled for decades due to political inertia and various challenges, including legal, licensing and ownership issues. In March, the government created PIA Holding Company (Holdco) to expedite the national carrier’s privatization by managing the airline’s liabilities and assisting in its transfer to potential investors.

On May 4, the Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) green-lighted PIA’s acquisition by Holdco, saying it would not have any material impact on the market. On Sunday, the privatization ministry said the SECP had agreed to the transfer of PIA’s non-core assets and liabilities to Holdco. 

“This order marks a significant milestone in the collaborative efforts of the Privatization Commission (PC), Finance Division, Aviation Ministry and Pakistan International Airlines to restructure the national carrier,” the ministry said. 

It said the SECP has directed the Pakistan Stock Exchange, the Central Depository Company and the National Clearing Company to ensure Holdco’s “smooth listing.” 

The PIA has accumulated hundreds of billions of rupees in arrears and losses over the years, forcing successive Pakistani governments to dole out billions of rupees from their budgets to keep the loss-making public entity afloat. 

The PIA’s woes were compounded after 2020 when the airline was already struggling financially while its flights were grounded due to the coronavirus pandemic. When the national airline resumed operations in May 2020, a domestic PIA flight crash in Karachi killed 97 out of 99 people on board, prompting an initial inquiry that pointed to a number of safety failures.

The inquiry sparked a disclosure from authorities that nearly a third of PIA’s pilots may have falsified their qualifications, prompting the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and other regulators to ban PIA flights.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has vowed to privatize the airline and warned Pakistan’s bureaucracy that he would not tolerate delays in the process. Sharif has assured Pakistan’s business community several times that the process to privatize the national airline would be a transparent one. 

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s most prominent association of journalists strongly condemned Israel’s move to ban international news organization Al Jazeera on Sunday, describing it as a “brutal curb on press freedom,” urging journalist bodies around the world to raise their voices for the Qatar-based network. 

The statement comes after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet voted unanimously to close Al Jazeera’s operations in Israel. The decision came weeks after Israel’s parliament passed a law allowing the temporary closure of foreign broadcasters considered to be a threat to its national security as the months-long war in Gaza drags on.

Later on Sunday, Israeli police raided Al Jazeera’s premises in East Jerusalem while satellite and cable providers took the broadcaster off air. 

“Workers strongly condemn the Israeli decision of banning telecast of Al Jazeera TV and demand its earliest restoration,” the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) said in a press release. “The PFUJ-Workers terms the decision a brutal curb on press freedom and demand that Israeli govt should give right to every media organization to work freely.”

PFUJ credited Al Jazeera for reporting “independently” on Israel’s war in Gaza, calling on journalist bodies around the world to raise their voices for freedom of media and support the Doha-based news channel. 

 “If we do not discharge our duty of raising voice for Al Jazeera the other will use the practice to silent voices in their regions,” the statement concluded. 

Al Jazeera criticized Israel’s decision to ban its broadcast in a report, saying that it is one of the few international media outlets to remain in Gaza throughout the war, broadcasting “bloody scenes of air attacks and overcrowded hospitals, and accusing Israel of massacres.”

“The Network vehemently rejects the allegations presented by Israeli authorities suggesting professional media standards have been violated,” Al Jazeera said in a statement. “It reaffirms its unwavering commitment to the values embodied by its Code of Ethics.”

Israel’s move can heighten the Jewish state’s tensions with Qatar, which funds Al Jazeera, especially at a time when the Gulf country is playing a key role in mediating efforts to stop the war in Gaza. 

Tim Dawson, the deputy general secretary of the International Federation of Journalists, told Al Jazeera Israel’s decision was a “retrograde and ridiculous decision.”

“Closing down media, closing down television stations is a sort of thing that despots do,” he said.