ISLAMABAD: Expressions of interest are due today, Thursday, for an up to 100 percent stake in Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), the country’s loss-making national flag carrier, as the government moves forward with long-delayed privatization plan aimed at easing pressure on its strained public finances.
The sale of PIA will be the first major privatization for around two decades. Turning around loss-making state-owned enterprises is a condition of an ongoing $7 billion bailout by the International Monetary Fund.
The government tried unsuccessfully to last year offload a stake in PIA, which is a major burden on its budget, but the sale was aborted because of the poor state of the airline and the conditions attached to any purchase.
In an advertisement issued by the government last month, it had said the deadline for the submission of expressions of interest and Statements of Qualification for the “Divestment of Pakistan International Airlines Corporation Limited through privatization” had been extended to 4pm hours on Thursday, June 19, 2025.
No changes had been made to the remaining terms and conditions, the privatization commission had said.
