A constitutional petition has been filed in the Lahore High Court challenging the recent privatisation of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), seeking to have the transaction declared illegal and unconstitutional.
The petition, submitted by Advocate Nabeel Javed Kahloon, calls for the cancellation of the sale of the national carrier. It challenges the Cabinet Committee on Privatisation’s approval of a Rs135 billion bid submitted by a consortium led by the Arif Habib Group for a 75 per cent stake in PIA.
The approved bid was around 35 per cent higher than the government’s reference price of Rs115 billion. Under the deal, the consortium has also committed to invest between Rs80 billion and Rs125 billion in fleet renewal and operational reforms.
The petitioner argues that both the Expression of Interest (EOI) issued on May 7, 2025, and the subsequent agreement reached on December 23 violate the Pakistan International Airlines Corporation (Conversion) Act, 2016.According to the petition, PIA is a trans-provincial institution listed under Part II of the Federal Legislative List.
As such, any decision to privatise it required prior approval from the Council of Common Interests (CCI) under Article 154 of the Constitution — approval that was never obtained. The petitioner further contends that Parliament was also bypassed in the process.Advocate Kahloon maintains that the government acted unlawfully by approving the privatisation through a cabinet committee alone.
He argues that Sections 3 and 4 of the 2016 Act require any restructuring or transfer of assets to remain within state-controlled entities.
The petition also highlights that substantial public funds have been invested in PIA over several decades, making its sale a matter of major public interest. The petitioner claims the government wrongly portrayed PIA as a burden on the national exchequer and misrepresented its value by comparing it to accumulated losses of around Rs800 billion.
He argues that PIA’s financial troubles stem largely from debt servicing, mismanagement and flawed policy decisions, rather than ongoing government subsidies.
The petition further alleges that the privatisation process lacked transparency, involved misuse of authority and was carried out in an arbitrary manner. It challenges a December 14, 2023 amendment to Section 28 of the Privatisation Commission Ordinance, arguing that the amendment — which limits the jurisdiction of high courts — does not apply in this case because the petition raises constitutional and legal questions, not a dispute between bidders.
Advocate Kahloon asserts that the sale of a major national asset such as PIA is subject to judicial review under Article 199 of the Constitution. He has also alleged that he faced harassment for raising objections to the privatisation process.
The petition asks the court to declare the privatisation agreement of December 23, 2025 null and void, suspend all further steps related to the sale, halt any actions arising from the May 2025 EOI, and direct that any restructuring of PIA be carried out strictly within government-owned entities.