LAHORE – Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Nawaz Sharif revealed that Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz was mulling over launching a new airline.
“Maryam has asked me why not we should launch a new airline and give it the name of Air Punjab,” the former prime minister said.
“I have told her that we can also buy PIA,” he said as the government is making efforts to sell stake of the loss-making national carrier.
He said the new airline will operate direct flights from Lahore, Karachi and Peshawar to New York, Tokyo and other cities of the world.
The PML-N president also slammed former aviation minister Ghulam Sarwar, who was appointed during the PTI tenure, for damaging PIA by giving a public statement about licenses of pilots.
On October 31, the bidding process for the privatisation of PIA was started, with just one participant for a stake in the national carrier.
Saad Nazir, chairman of real-estate development company Blue World City, had placed a bid of Rs10 billion, way below the Privatisation Commission’s expectation of Rs85.03bn.
