All domestic and international flights of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) were cancelled on Wednesday, airport officials said, as the strike resulting from employees’ protest against the national carrier’s privatisation entered its second day.
PIA employees resumed their protest, which came as the federal government invoked the Essential Services (Maintenance) Act, 1952, in the PIA for six months, outside major airports across the country.
PIA representatives at Karachi’s Jinnah International Airport, Islamabad’s Benazir Bhutto International Airport, Lahore’s Allama Iqbal International Airport and Peshawar’s Bacha Khan International Airport confirmed that all domestic and international flights scheduled for today have been cancelled.
“All PIA flights have been suspended indefinitely,” said a PIA inquiry representative at Lahore airport.
He said a few PIA flights, including from London and Milan, landed at Lahore airport on Wednesday morning, although services of “employees of a private company” were used to handle the arriving flights.
