ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will hold the bidding for the privatization of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) on Dec. 23, with the entire process to be broadcast live nationwide to ensure transparency, Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif said on Wednesday.
The decision marks Islamabad’s most aggressive push in decades to reform the debt-ridden airline, which has accumulated more than $2.5 billion in losses and become a major burden on the national budget. Once regarded as one of Asia’s premier carriers, PIA has struggled with chronic mismanagement, political interference, overstaffing, mounting debt and operational issues that led to a 2020 ban on flights to the European Union and United Kingdom after a pilot licensing scandal. Privatizing the airline is also a key requirement under Pakistan’s $7 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) program agreed in September 2024.
Last month, Sharif said Pakistan will privatize 75 percent of the national carrier, with bidding to take place among four shortlisted investor groups.
“PIA’s bidding will take place on 23 December 2025 and will be broadcast live on all media,” Sharif was quoted as saying in a statement released by his office.
He said the government was ensuring “transparency and merit” throughout the privatization process and added that resuming the airline’s global flight operations would ease travel for overseas Pakistanis and support the tourism sector.
