Islamabad: The bidding ceremony for the privatization of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) was held where the management was left reeling over the offer of the sole bidder.
A ceremony was held in Islamabad to open the bid of Blue World City Consortium for the privatization of PIA where Secretary Ministry of Privatization Javed Pal and Secretary Privatization Commission Usman Bajwa, Chairman Blue World City Saad Nazir and CEO Blue World Aviation Maysam. Raza, CEO Blue World City Chaudhry Nadeem Ijaz was present on the stage.
Blue World City Consortium submitted the sole bid for the purchase of the airline in the afternoon, with Blue World Consortium representative Wali Muhammad also present on stage.
The Blue World Consortium agreed to the terms of the privatization and the government fixed a minimum price of Rs 85.3 million for the privatization of PIA and the bidder was given 30 minutes to revise its bid. .
The sole bidder for the privatization of PI bid only 10 billion for 60% shares of PIA, at which point the bid of the sole bidder was laughed at.
The people on the stage also smiled at the bid, while the PIA management held their heads on the bid of the airline worth 152 billion assets and the people of the Privatization Commission were also disturbed to see the bid.
The Privatization Commission had set a minimum bid of Rs 85 billion for the privatization of PIA. Speaking to Express News, the representative and chairman of the bidder consortium Blueworld Chaudhry Saad Nazir said that the minimum price announced for PIA is too high, the difference between the minimum price and the bid given is huge.
He said that PIA has liabilities of 200 billion rupees, and a new airline will be established for 85 billion rupees. Earlier, a Privatization Commission meeting was held under the chairmanship of Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar. Ishaq Dar presided over the CCOP meeting through video link from Doha. Various secretaries including the Ministers of Privatization, Finance and Energy also participated in the meeting.
In the meeting, the distribution of 60 percent shares was approved by the Price Control Board regarding bidding.
