ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has said it does not wish to carry on with the “Markhor” emblem since the airline has detached itself from branding of all the instruments and communications since May 2018.

A PIA spokesperson explained that the national flag carrier would honour the Supreme Court’s order to change the new livery in letter and spirit and it consequently had detached completely from the Markhor emblem.

The spokesman said the decision on the Markhor emblem had been complied with. PIA does not wish to carry on this matter any further and presently there is no question of defending the same.

The Supreme Court is seized with a case relating to reports that PIA accumulated losses of Rs360 billion till December 2017 and that the total liabilities amounted to Rs406 billion against assets of Rs111 billion and plans were afoot to sell off the national assets at throw away prices. The court also took notice of the change of the livery by replacing the Pakistani flag with Markhor.

In a report furnished before the Supreme Court, the PIA management had explained that the airlines embarked upon the renewed branding initiative in April 2016 and used the symbol of Markhor to define the journey of PIA and to show a resilient national icon striving to make a comeback to the global arena.

Published in Dawn, November 7th, 2018