It gives me immense pleasure to witness the launch of "Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Apna Ghar Scheme", by the President of Pakistan Mr Asif Ali Zardari. My warm felicitations to the employees of the National Flag Carrier, who will Insha Allah be proud owners of apartments in a township in the prime locality of Karachi.
It is an honour for me, as Managing Director PIA, to witness the fruition of the vision of Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto. She believed in the empowerment of masses especially, the women. Access to affordable housing for every Pakistani, was the dream of, Quaid-e-Azam, Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto - as embodied in the motto of Pakistan Peoples Party "Roti, Kapra aur Makaan". The first two Roti and Kapra are being provided in the form of jobs and now the third one is about to be accomplished through this scheme.
I am also pleased to see the initiation of this housing scheme on the birth anniversary of the founder of Pakistan, Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah on December 25, 2010, who carved from Sub Continent a homeland for the Muslims. Following his foot-steps, we are offering homes to our workers.
PIA employees' township was established in the late 1960s and since then employees of staff cadre avail the facility of residing in these apartments but only till their retirement, a time when one needs most support. They along with their families were expected to vacate these premises provided to them, thus adding to their miseries of finding new shelters for their families.
Once again for the first time in the history of PIA, employees of staff cadre are being provided accommodation on ownership basis. The employees of staff cadre will now be able to own a home, this is indeed a dream comes true for the staff cadre employees of PIA.
The payment arrangements are also devised in such a way that employees can easily make the required payments from within their means. As Managing Director of PIA I am highly grateful to the President of Pakistan, Mr Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister of Pakistan, Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, Minister of Defence and Chairman PIA, Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar, Chief Minister Sindh, Syed Qaim Ali Shah, Senator Faisal Raza Abidi and the Board of Directors of PIA for their thoughtfulness, kind-heartedness and sincere efforts in bringing to life the dream of Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto.
Here I would like to add that like our great leaders Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto we also believe in the prosperity and self contentment of our workers. Despite many economic difficulties faced by the country, PIA has provided jobs to the various cadres of educated masses and in particular provided work opportunities to females. The airline has also regularised the jobs of contractual employees in PIA and now the commencement of such a marvellous housing scheme for PIA employees. We believe that with the dedicated workforce of PIA, the airline will achieve new heights and once again be among the most successful airlines of the world.
I would again like to express my gratitude to the President of Pakistan, Mr Asif Ali Zardari, on behalf of the employees of Pakistan International Airlines, for provisioning of land in the prime locality of Karachi and request him to do the same in other cities of Pakistan. In the end, I assure him of our all out efforts to make this airline a continuing success. Allah Almighty help us (Ameen).