The Pakistan International Airlines Corporation (PIAC) said the national carrier would pay a dividend for the year ending December 31, 2004 after nine years.
The airline will pay an interim dividend of 0.50 rupee or 5 percent per share, the company said in a statement to the Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE).
It last paid a dividend of 10 percent or 1.00 rupee per share as a dividend in 1994.
The declaration of dividend from the airline would help attract investors for its sale offer next month. Moreover, the KSE, which planned to put the Corporation on defaulting counter, as it failed to pay dividend would be avoided.
The government is planning to raise as much as 2.3 billion rupees ($40 million) by selling 10 percent stakes of the Pakistan International Airlines Corporation on the stock market at 20 rupees a share, the government said.
The sale will take place from June 7 to 9, said the Islamabad-based asset sales ministry in a letter to the Karachi Stock Exchange.
Pakistan is selling state assets to help repay its $35 billion of overseas debt and meet commitments made to the International Monetary Fund in return for a three-year, $1.3 billion loan secured in December 2001.
The country has raised the equivalent of $2.3 billion from asset sales since it began the programme in 1990.
Pakistan International Airlines'' shares fell 0.10 rupee or 0.4 percent to 23.05 rupees at the close of the Karachi Stock Exchange on Thursday.