Only one company, Blue World City, completed requirements to enter the bidding process for a stake in the country’s flag carrier, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA).

Blue World City is a real estate project based in Rawalpindi and Islamabad. Journalist Shahid Aslam reported that there are “almost 215 FIRs registered against the company owners with charges ranging from murder, illegal weapons, injuring people, and illegal occupation of land.”

The Privatisation Commission had initially pre-qualified six bidders, including Fly Jinnah, a consortium led by YB Hol¬dings (Pvt) Ltd, Airblue Ltd, a consortium led by Pak Ethanol (Pvt) Ltd, Arif Habib Corporation Ltd, and Blue World City.

It was also reported that initially, government members did not think of Blue World City, a real estate company, as a serious contender for PIA.

The Commission shortlisted the six companies after an extensive review based on technical, financial, and documentary requirements, inviting them to proceed with the next stage of the bidding process to start buy-side due diligence.

However, out of all the six qualified bidders, only one chose to submit “earnest money” prior to final bidding.

Earnest money is a deposit made to a seller that represents a buyer’s good faith in making a purchase.

The successful bidder would own a 51 percent stake in PIA and 100 percent of the airline’s share capital, along with management control.

Business Recorder reported that the owner of Blue World City was also looking into acquiring operations at the Islamabad International Airport, which the government is looking to outsource.

As part of the IMF conditions for structural reforms, the government decided to privatise PIA as in 2023, it reported a loss of over Rs 75 billion.

PIA has a debt load of around Rs800 billion ($2.9 billion), and the government has needed to bail it out multiple times over the years.

Journalist Shahid Aslam also reported that the management of Blue World City also owns the media group Suno TV. According to Aslam, the management of the Blue World City is “run by retired Generals – Arif Waraich and Sajjad Rasool – who served in ISI.”

Aslam claimed that “Gen (retd) Arif Warraich served as the DG SCT (ISI) in 2014-15 and is now serving at a Director level in Suno TV’s management. While Gen (retd) Sajjad Rasool served as DGS Security & Administration in ISI, and he is also part of the core management team at Suno TV.”