RAWALPINDI: Though Benazir Bhutto International Airport remained opened for other airlines, no Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight departed or arrived from any domestic or international destinations as flight operations across the county remained suspended for a third consecutive day.

In addition, as many as 50 PIA flights in and out of Islamabad were cancelled and hundreds of travellers, intending to perform Umrah, were held back by the strike. “I can’t even tell travellers whether to go home or wait for their flight and they are really upset,” an airport official told Dawn.

On Thursday, PIA workers protesting at the airport were also visited by opposition leaders such as PTI chief Imran Khan, PPP’s Leader of the Opposition Syed Khursheed Shah, Senator Saeed Ghani and Ghulam Murtaza Jatoi.

Angry employees of the national flag carrier began their sit-in in front of the airport gate around 11am and stayed there until sunset.

Speaking to the protesters, Imran Khan criticised the government’s move to privatise PIA and assured PIA employees of his party’s support. He said the government had been imposing new and unannounced taxes on the people and that the PML-N’s policies are clearly “anti-people”.

Quoting international experts, Ghulam Murtaza Jatoi had condemned the privatisation plan, saying such actions had been termed obsolete.

PTI’s Naeemul Haq also condemned the use of force against peaceful protesters in Karachi and assured PIA employees that his party would support their cause.

PPP Senator Saeed Ghani alleged that four office-bearers of the People’s Unity union had been missing since flight operations were suspended. He identified the missing employees of PIA as union president Hidayatullah, vice president Zameer Hussain Chandio, Saifullah and Mansoor Dhalwan.

He warned the government to release the PIA employees, warning that otherwise, his party would stage a protest inside and outside parliament.

Opposition leader Khursheed Shah and former Senate chairman Farooq H. Naik, who left for Karachi on an Airblue flight on Thursday evening, met with protesting PIA employees and suggested they hold talks with the government to resolve their issues, since their strike was affecting travellers and painting a poor image of the national flag carrier.

Other prominent figures who visited the sit-in included Roedad Khan, Mian Aslam of the Jamaat-e-Islami, Asim Sajjad and Babu Idress of the PPP, as well as and other trade union leaders.

Published in Dawn, February 5th, 2016