ISLAMABAD (our reporter): The Federal Minister for Aviation Khawaja Saad Rafiq has said that the Islamabad Airport is being outsourced for fifteen years.
Speaking in the National Assembly on Friday, he said that the government has plan to outsource to the Islamabad International Airport for 15 years. He gave assurity about the job security of the employees of the Airport and said that no single employee will be jobless while outsourcing.
Khawaja Saad Rafiq said that the airports are run by private operators in the world, outsourcing does not mean that airports are being sold. He said that the runway and navigation systems of the airports are not being outsourced. After Islamabad, the airports of Lahore and Karachi also will be outsourced in near future.
It is pertinent to mention here that the process of the outsourcing of airports is underway. Yesterday, meeting of the Steering Committee was held to review the progress of work related to outsourcing of airports’ operations under the chairmanship of Finance Minister Ishaq Dar.
Federal Minister for Aviation and Railways Khawaja Saad Rafique, Minister for Commerce Syed Naveed Qamar, Minister for Law & Justice Azam Nazir Tarar, SAPM on Finance Mr. Tariq Bajwa, Secretary Aviation, CEO Public Private Partnership Authority, DG Pakistan CAA, IFC team and other government officials attended the meeting.
IFC, transaction advisor apprised the meeting of the progress on the working. The meeting unanimously decided and allowed Ministry of Aviation to proceed further for tendering of the outsourcing of the first airport i.e. Islamabad Airport in order to improve service delivery in line with the best industry practices.
Rafiq warned that the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) will be completely destroyed in two years if the if the restructuring of the organization is not done.
Khwaja further said that the political recruitments were made in PIA in the past, 50, 50 people were recruited even where there was no need, during the different regimes. He said that martial law, democratic governments also made indiscriminate recruitments in PIA.
Khawaja Saad Rafiq said that due to Ghulam Sarwar Khan’s stupid statement, PIA lost 70 billion rupees, He said that the flights to the UK will be restored in 3 months, after the UK the flights to Europe and America will be restored which was banned after the statement.