No govt financing, sovereign-guaranteed loans for new PIA aircraft: adviser to finmin
Adviser to the Finance Minister Khurram Schehzad clarified on Sunday that the government was not buying any aircraft for Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), which was privatised through an auction in December last year. “The government is neither buying aircraft for a privatised PIA, nor has it announced any sovereign guarantee of taxpayer-funded loan for doing so,” Schehzad posted on X…
Khurram Schehzad, adviser to the Finance Minister, clarified on Sunday that the government is not purchasing any aircraft for Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) or offering any government-backed loans. Claims on social media that a minister was negotiating sovereign-linked financing for the aircraft were debunked after a meeting between Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb and John Jovanovich, Chair of the US Export-Import (Exim) Bank.
The finance minister discussed the Reko Diq mining project and aircraft procurement opportunities for PIA. However, Schehzad emphasized that the US Exim's mandate is to support its country's exports and jobs, and a sovereign guarantee is not an automatic requirement for financing US-manufactured aircraft. The government's role is to facilitate access to international financing, technology, and suppliers, and Aurangzeb's discussions with US Exim covered aviation, refinery upgrades, and Reko Diq as part of broader Pakistan-US economic engagement.
Schehzad stressed that the government is reducing its role in commercial activity, promoting privatization, and enabling private sector growth without running businesses itself. Therefore, claims of a "public loan, hidden subsidy, or state backstop" are not accurate, as no such arrangement has been announced.
Written by urgent.news from Dawn - Pakistan's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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