PIA gets bid from real estate company facing over 200 FIRs for murder, land seizure

After receiving lukewarm interest from foreign bidders for Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), the Privatisation Commission added Blue World City builders to the pre-qualified list despite the real estate company facing over 200 FIRs related to murder and land seizure.

Blue World City offered only 12 percent of the estimated cost, whichfar too low to meet the requirements.

A former marketing manager at PIA said, "Blue World City wants Rs200 billion profit with an investment of only Rs10 billion." 

Apart from this, “Almost 215 FIRs are registered against the company owners with charges of ranging murder, illegal weapons, injured people, and illegal occupation of land,” according to a media report.

Six bidders were included in the Privatisation Commission's pre-qualifiers list, including FLY Jinnah, PIA, a consortium led by YB Holdings (Pvt) Ltd, Airblue Ltd, a consortium led by Pak Ethanol (Pvt) Ltd, Arif Habib Corporation Ltd, and Blue World City.

Sources said that the commission did not previously consider Blue World City, but it has now been included among the shortlisted candidates. 

It was also reported that the owners of Blue World City also own the media group Suno TV. The channel has been run by retired Generals Arif Waraich and Sajjad Rasool, who served in the ISI.

“General (rtd) Arif Waraich served as the DG SCT (ISI) in 2014-2015 and is now serving as a Director level in Suno TV, while Gen (retd) Sajjad Rasool served as DGS Security & administration in ISI, and he is part of the core management team at Suno TV,” according to a media report.