ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has received a single bid for a stake in its national airline, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), as five other consortiums opted out of this significant privatization effort.
The sole bidder submitted “earnest money” to the Privatisation Commission by the Tuesday deadline, although Ahsan Ishaq, a spokesman for the Privatisation Ministry, did not disclose the bidder’s identity.
Initially, six groups were shortlisted to bid for shares in the struggling airline, including Airblue Ltd., Arif Habib Corporation Ltd., Fly Jinnah (Air Arabia), Y.B. Holdings Pvt., Pak Ethanol Pvt., and the real estate consortium Blue World City.
This privatization move aligns with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s commitment to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to divest loss-making state enterprises, aiming to alleviate the financial burden on the country’s economy.