News / Pakistan

Two airline workers killed in Karachi protest

Tuesday, 02 February 2016 2:52 PM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 02 February 2016 2:52 PM ]

Employees of the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) chant slogans as police use water cannon during a protest near the Karachi International Airport, Karachi, Pakistan, February 2, 2016. (AFP photo)

Two airline workers were killed Tuesday when Pakistani security forces opened fire on an anti-privatization protest in the southern port city of Karachi, a union leader said.

Suhail Baluch, the union leader of the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), said police fired live ammunition and used batons to disperse the protesters slamming the government for its plans to privatize its national carrier.

A spokesman at Jinnah Hospital in Pakistan’s largest city confirmed the two fatalities.

However, police claim it is not clear who opened fire at the demonstration in the volatile city. Law enforcement agencies say they have launched an investigation into the incident.

The deadly protest came a day after the PIA employees’ union announced it would cancel flights in an attempt to pressure the Islamabad government into abandoning its privatization plans.

Pakistani security forces baton charge at employees of the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) during a protest near the Karachi International Airport in Karachi, Pakistan, February 2, 2016. (AFP photo)

In early December last year, Pakistan announced plans to privatize its national carrier in 2016, following years of increasing losses and mismanagement that have badly tarnished the airline's reputation both in the country and worldwide.

Pakistani Privatization Minister Mohammad Zubair had said the plan to privatize the PIA would get underway as of July 2016.

As a preliminary measure before the plan goes fully into gear, the government has converted the PIA’s state-owned status to a “commercial entity” through an ordinance, but stopped short of announcing its privatization plans.

The move sparked a fierce backlash among the majority of the airline’s 15,000 employees, who subsequently held protests at major airports across the country on Monday and Tuesday.

The PIA is now suffering from frequent flight cancellations and delays and has been involved in numerous controversies over the years, including a case in which one of its pilots was jailed in Britain in 2013 for being drunk.

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