The Pakistan government has urged lawmakers cutting across party lines to declare the loss-making national flag carrier PIA “bankrupt” and eventually “shut it down”, saying the airline lacks discipline, top-quality management, ethical and professional officers.

The proposal was made by Prime Minister’s Adviser on Aviation Sardar Mehtab Abbasi yesterday at the Senate Special Committee on the performance of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), days after drugs were recovered from its plane in London.

“Such a recommendation (to shutdown) from a parliamentary committee will help the government take the difficult decision that it is otherwise hesitating to take,” Dawn quoted Abbasi as saying.

The committee, which met to discuss the status of its recommendations to overhaul PIA, also took up the incidents that occurred over the past month and gave a bad name to both the airline and the country.