ISLAMABAD: It was a day filled with unanswered questions, confusing claims and lots of statistics as the National Assembly on Thursday grappled with issues of Pakistan Airways Limited (PAL) and the country’s declining exports.

Opposition lawmakers grew impatient with Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sheikh Aftab after he sought another day to prepare when asked to give a briefing. But the minister seemed determined to come through and after a brief absence, returned to the house towards the end of the session, clutching a single-sided A4 sheet of paper.

Sheikh Aftab, to his credit, was able to stretch the information on that one sheet into a 15-minute diatribe. He started by recounting the condition of the national flag carrier when the PML-N was ousted in 1999 and compared it with the miserable state of the airline that the government had inherited in 2013.

“New planes were brought in on wet and dry leases; the government tried to shuffle responsibilities around to attract those who know how to run an airline, but to no avail,” he conceded.

He stressed that PAL was not being propped up as an alternative to PIA, arguing that healthy competition would benefit the fledgling carrier in the long run.

“PAL and PIA will be sister concerns,” he maintained.

“We want a new airline that can change with the changing times,” Sheikh Aftab said, adding that all staff would be hired on a contractual basis and no PIA employee would be laid off.

Commerce minister tries in vain to address lawmakers’ concerns over export slump

He then claimed that the government was not trying to reinvent the wheel, so to speak.

“Emirates opened Fly Dubai, Singapore Airlines launched Silk Airways and Qatar Airlines has Al Maha.”

This view was challenged by PPP’s Syed Naveed Qamar, who pointed out that the minister was referring to examples of budget airlines, which was not what the government intended with PAL. He compared the government to the British East India Company, saying that apprehensions were bound to arise when matters were not laid before parliament in a transparent manner.

“I don’t blame Sheikh Sahib, he’s only relaying the information he was briefed on,” he concluded.

The parliamentary affairs minister also compared the situation to the M2 motorway.

“Just because the M2 has been built doesn’t mean that it has replaced the G.T. Road. We have just given the people an alternative.”

The minister, however, admitted that the government had only registered the airline and had yet to iron out all details.

This proved too much for PPP’s Azra Fazal Pechuho and Nafisa Shah. Throughout Sheikh Aftab’s speech, they heckled him mercilessly, even prompting a response from the usually cool minister. But when they realised that his speech was short on substance, they left the house without waiting for him to finish.

Trade figures

Earlier, Commerce Minister Khurram Dastagir spent considerable time trying to explain why, in the government’s words, the country’s export numbers looked dismal. However, it seemed that no one was buying what the minister had to say; since they kept putting the same questions to him again and again – first during Question Hour and then on a calling-attention notice moved by PPP lawmakers.

With a mountain of files before him, the minister entrenched himself as he kept his cool while single-handedly responded to most of the opposition’s queries and cutting remarks.

He blamed the price of cotton in the international market for Pakistan’s falling export numbers, claiming that while the quantum of exports of items such as raw cotton had increased – the profit in dollars had fallen. “We ended up making less money exporting more cotton this year than we did last year.”

He said that the State Bank and other experts had concluded that devaluing the rupee was not necessary, even though China and India had devalued their own currencies. He claimed that Pakistan needed to manufacture finished goods and diversify its exports from the staple of textiles, leather goods, cutlery, surgical instruments and sporting goods. He also suggested that Pakistan diversify its export destinations, identifying Eastern Europe as a potential market.

However, the minister’s otherwise clean-sheet was marred by one instance where the minister’s department let him down. A question, posed by PPP’s Suraiya Jatoi, regarding the number of textile units that had closed down was not satisfactorily answered.

Instead of giving the number of units that have shut down, the written reply gave the number of textile units that had been listed or delisted.

When Ms Jatoi pointed out the discrepancy, the minister was forced to concede that the government only had anecdotal evidence of such closures. “We had asked the SECP for data on delisted textile companies as there is no record of industrial units that had closed down,” he said.

Published in Dawn, February 26th, 2016