• Nawaz Sharif addresses Pakistani community in New York.
• “I advised Maryam to start new airline serving int’l destinations.”
• Terms pilot licence issue most damaging scandal for PIA.

LONDON/NEW YORK: Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif has said that his daughter and Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz urged him to purchase the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) and rebrand it as “Air Punjab”.

“Maryam said that we should buy PIA and name it ‘Air Punjab’ after making it the best airline,” Nawaz said during a discussion in New York with party supporters.

While speaking to the Pakistani community in New York, ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Nawaz stated that Maryam, who is also Punjab chief minister, suggested to him to buy the national flag carrier.

He mentioned that he advised Maryam that she could start a new airline that would serve destinations all over the world. “I believe discussions have taken place regarding this matter.”

She suggested acquiring it and establishing a brand-new airline with brand new planes.

“I told Maryam to have consultations around it. I told her that you can buy the PIA and also establish a new airline too and that Air Punjab should go from Lahore, Islamabad and Karachi to New York, London, Tokyo, Hong Kong and every part of the world. I believe a discussion is taking place on this.”

In the same discussion, Nawaz lamented that under former premier Imran Khan’s government the national carrier went under the water after then aviation minister Ghulam Sarwar said PIA pilots don’t have the required licenses.

“I am aggrieved at the destruction of the PIA and those who did so are amongst us. The Imran’s cabinet minister Ghulam Sarwar said the pilots don’t have the licenses. Can you imagine the damage caused? That was not true to start with but even if it was, should such a thing have been said publicly?”

The PML-N president has expressed deep sadness over the decline of PIA noting that he arrived in the US after changing flights.

This comes a day after the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government expressed its desire to purchase the PIA through a bid exceeding Rs10 billion after the national airline attracted a minimal bid for the national flag carrier.

In a letter to the privatisation ministry on Friday, the KP Board of Investment stated their interest in participating in the privatisation process of the PIA.

The Privatisation Commission decided on Thursday to again conduct the bidding process for the PIA after attracting only a Rs10 billion bid for the national flag carrier against the valuation of Rs85 billion from a single bidder, Blue World City Consortium.

Cash-strapped Pakistan is looking to offload a 51-100% stake in debt-ridden PIA to raise funds and reform bleeding state-owned enterprises as envisaged under a $7 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme.

Initially, the commission had deemed six bidders eligible, allowing them to participate in the bidding for the loss-making national carrier. But five of such bidders have opted out of the process.