PIA’s management paralysis
In an emulation of John F. Kennedy’s “Boston Mafia”, Nawaz Sharif (or rather his brother Shahbaz “Bobby Kennedy” Sharif) brought in close associates and friends from Lahore into the Federal Government and thus into the national mainstream. As long as a person is qualified for a particular post, there should be no heart-burning on this issue, to the victors must go the spoils, the discretion with which they exercise this right shows the level of political maturity. Any leader who does not bring his intimates and the party faithful to Camelot will get short shrift and the Sharif family have enough political savvy not to try and buck the system. There is a genuine requirement to have political loyalists in critical management positions, inherently motivated to assess, analyse, then issue and carry out command decisions.
Several weeks ago, a member of the “Lahore Mafia” inner sanctum was made Chairman of PIA. Mumtaz Hameed is a successful, young businessman having proven commercial talents. In trying to emulate Mian Rafiq Saigol’s successful tenure as Chief Executive of the Airline in the 1970s during the PPP regime, the recipe for success was pretty straightforward, a private entrepreneur would bring fresh dynamism to the national airline, a competent and successful management executive from the private sector is almost always a plus point in the public sector. As regards his confidante-status with the ruling elite, it is always a bonus if your Chief Executive has special access into the inner circle of the country’s ruling elite. Mumtaz Hameed took over from Nawaz Tiwana, who was doubling as Managing Director (MD) and Acting Chairman after the departure of Air Chief Marshal Farooq Feroze Khan to the post of the Chief of Air Staff. Nawaz has risen up the ladder through PIA’s management hierarchy, one of the handful of bright young airline management executives who were aspirants to become MD earlier till one of the deserving ones, Arif Ali Abbassi, got the nod from the Benazir Government. When politicians stay out too long in the cold, political patronage can run amok, somewhere men of conscience have to draw the line. Arif soon became history as he could not keep pace with extraneous demands of the Client-Patronage system, mostly requests for employment. Thus despite the fact that he raised the wages of PIA staff, brought down the foreign currency overdraft from US $ 92 million to US $ 50 million and left Rs 2000 million in local currency surplus. Air Marshal Farooq Feroze Khan became MD in addition to being Chairman and he in turn made three Deputy Managing Directors (DMDs), Nawaz Tiwana, Arshad Mahmood and Khurshid Anwar, the latter two had been charge-sheeted for corruption and misuse of official position. On the departure of Air Chief Marshal Farooq Feroze Khan, Nawaz Tiwana was deservedly elevated to MD and took over also as Acting Chairman. To all accounts, he greeted the appointment of Mumtaz Hameed as Chairman with an open mind. If he resented the younger man’s taking over the top slot in PIA, it did not show in his demeanour or attitude.
Pakistan does not differ from other countries in having rank opportunists in its corporate culture. Some of Nawaz Tiwana’s colleagues who were frustrated by his ascent to the MD’s post conspired to undo him with a vengeance. Callous to anything contrary to their own advancement and comfort, impervious to the long-term effects on PIA’s morale, their unholy moves to vitiate the atmosphere turned PIA into uncertain camps who gave only grudging respect to authority. Some are known to have carried tales of the sordid kind to the new Chairman about the MD, mostly false and all motivated by their own vested interest. Their alternate fawning, alternate whining succeeded in convincing Mumtaz Hameed that his must be the Second Coming. A good man was thus lost and an excellent formula stillborn.
In any corporate circumstances it is extremely difficult to stay strictly within the given parameters on a day to day basis. Those who have worked in an establishment for years not only know how to work the system but how to foul it. The promptings and snide advice regarding turf were bound to bring matters to a head, that it came in the matter of office premises and furniture must be one of the most petty incidents in an already sordid corporate environment replete with jealousy and back-biting. The PIA MD’s office is better appointed and is larger. Without so much as asking Nawaz Tiwana, who was away in Lahore, to change his offices with that of the Chairman, the appointment boards on the office doors were simply exchanged in his absence. Other than the propriety of such an action, this rank discourtesy was not becoming of someone like Mumtaz Hameed, already used to clover and having no need to prove his manhood by the acquiring of a larger office.
Once acclaimed as Pakistan’s only corporate entity of international standard, PIA has grown over the decades, its executive cadre being a mix of professionals who have risen through the ranks, qualified professional executives entering the airline laterally on merit and political administrative appointees with or without commensurate qualifications who adjusted in the Airline depending upon their potential. It is not uncommon to have permutations and combinations among the three, this is also a sure recipe for constant friction. Normally, the Chairman/Chief Executive of the Airline is brought in from the PAF, his management role depending upon his personality, e.g. as an activist, Air Marshal (Retd) Nur Khan was very much hands-on. As PIA grew in size, it became incumbent to have an inherent PIA executive function as the Chief Operating Officer (COO), a person who would understand and respond promptly to the competitiveness of the modern airline industry and its commensurate speedy decision making. Enwer Jamal and Salim Khan fit that category to a certain degree but were already past their prime. In the years of Zia’s martial law regime, the management executive precedent as COO from within PIA remained mostly suspended. After a hiatus, the status quo was restored when Arif Ali Abbassi, became the Managing Director during the PPP regime and insisted upon having the authority to go with it. The choice of a PIA senior executive, Nawaz Tiwana, as MD was a significantly correct decision by the present Federal Government in respect of the Airline, the second was to keep the post of Chairman for a competent political appointee instead of devolving automatically on either the Secretary, Ministry of Defence, or to a serving Air Force Officer. Like Abbassi before him, Nawaz Tiwana was one of the bright young executives who were groomed through the PIA system, having been GM and/or Director of almost every Department. Naturally his knowledge of PIA was first hand, his reactions to men and material within the system based on that reserve of information and inherent experience. Even as Nawaz Tiwana took over, the knives had come silently out. One particular rather corrupt Director, who operates quite blatantly on the Client-Patron formula of disbursing largesse to increase his influence within the Government, started mucking about within the PIA system, in some cases in utter disregard of passenger safety and comfort in order to defame the MD for his own ulterior motives. In Pakistan, like in any Third World Country, employment slots for sons/daughters of the influential buys a lot of influence a la BCCI, their postings to “cushy” locations around the world and in Pakistan force-multiplies that influence. This gentleman has used this strategem to escape repeated investigations against him, including that of an extended enquiry by the FIA, for nepotism and corruption.
Mumtaz Hameed’s appointment as Chairman was thus a tailor-made situation for creating mayhem, extremely potent for the criminally-minded and/or the ambitious, they fully exploited it. Suggestions were made as would rub Tiwana in the raw and put Mumtaz Hameed in a direct confrontational posture with him. The ill-advised office imbroglio was the straw that broke the camel’s back, the Corporate battle for turf has been joined.
One feels that this situation can be turned on its head. The Federal Government has appointed Mumtaz Hameed as Chairman, Nawaz Tiwana as MD must see this as (a) keeping the Federal Government from unnecessary direct day to day interference in the Airline, thus giving him the time and running room to administer the airline on a day to day basis while Mumtaz Hameed takes on the policy inter-action with the Government and (b) getting the Federal Government to accept some of PIA’s genuine proposals expeditiously because Mumtaz would have the ear of the PM’s inner circle. On the other hand, Mumtaz Hameed should see Nawaz Tiwana as a competent Airline executive with inherent knowledge and experience of PIA who is directly answerable to him and forming a sound basis for the cobbling together of an effective team.
Maturity is in great demand here, the creation of the present impasse by a third individual is not unusual in any corporate circumstances. What must happen is that the crooked person/s and his/their cronies must be thrown out of the Airline post-haste for the good of PIA and the country. Mumtaz Hameed being in the senior management post, it behoves him to journey to Lahore to get his MD back and start the process of making the team effort work for PIA’s benefit. Nawaz Tiwana must also take a few steps forward. If Mumtaz Hameed can overcome his ego, they can together make a great management team. If this does not happen and the impasse is not broken, then the Prime Minister must intercede to de-freeze PIA’s management paralysis, an airline is not a suitable entity that can survive such a sustained limbo.
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