Privatisation of PIA, airports: Saudi Finance Minister briefed

Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb has met with his Saudi counterpart Mohammed Al-Jadaan in Washington DC and briefed him on the privatization of the state-owned Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) and airports as Islamabad seeks “strategic investments,” the finance ministry said on Thursday. The meeting between Aurangzeb and the Saudi finance minister took place on the sidelines of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) annual meetings, where he has held a number of engagements with finance officials and business leaders from various countries and institutions. The cash-strapped South Asian nation is looking to privatize the debt-ridden PIA to raise funds and reform loss-making, state-owned enterprises as envisaged under a $7 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) program.