The federal cabinet has replaced Faryal Jooma with Haque Nawaz as member of the Board of Directors (BoD) of Pakistan International Airlines Company Limited (PIACL). The sources said PIACL Board in its 11th meeting held on April 18, 2017, fixed number of Directors at eleven. As per section 183 of the Companies Ordinance, 1984 read with section 4(4) of PIA (Conversion) Act, 2016, the federal government would nominate 10 members to the PIACL Board for the next term of three years, as the federal government owns 96 per cent shares in the company out of which 4 per cent were through PIA employees empowerment trust. However, legal experts are available with PIACL to deal with legal matters.
On November 8, 2017, federal cabinet was apprised that in terms of public sector companies (Corporate Governance) Rules, 2013(3-A); Director nominated by government shall hold office in accordance with section 165(3) of the Companies Act, 2017. As per section 165(3), a Director nominated under section 165(1) shall hold office during the pleasure of the nominating body.
PIA is suffering from severe financial crisis and needs professional expertise in the field of financial matters to improve its performance and make it a profitable entity.
The sources said, Aviation Division proposed that Faryal Jooma, currently a member of PIACL Board be substituted with Haque Nawaz - retired as Acting Auditor General of Pakistan- as one of the members of the Board of Directors of PIACL. He has expertise in public financial management, project management budget expenditure, inter-governmental finance, external finance and human resource management. He also has extensive experience of working on important positions in Finance Division.
In view of the problems being faced by PIACL, the government had been taking active steps for its revival and to make it a profitable entity, expertise and experience of Haque Nawaz in Finance was likely to strengthen the efforts for revival of PIACL as member of the Board.
The summary was submitted in accordance with the Supreme Court of Pakistan's judgment reported as PLD 2016 SC 808 approval nomination/ election of Directors on PIACL Board.