Pakistan International Airline has appointed Bilal Munir Sheikh, former Vice President of Jazz (formerly Mobilink) as its Chief Commercial Officer. It worth mentioning here that Bilal has no aviation experience at all previously. He has already joined the airline last week.
Bilal, is a well known name in telecom sector and previously worked for major telecom companies in Pakistan. His most important role was at Jazz when it used to be Mobilink.
While Bilal has achieved a lot in an assenting services company which is run on proper business plans. It will be interesting to see how Bilal prevails in PIA where the system works to bring you down rather than support you. Already various quarters from within the airline are expressing their unease over his arrival.
Even though Bilal’s senior position still it is not guaranteed he will have better chances to prevail against the PIA mafias. With a very recent example of German COO and acting CEO the mafias within PIA are fully capable of taking a person to cleaners. In an added challenge there is a new PIA board in the making and who knows if we get a new chairman who has his own horses in the race.
So we at Pakistan Aviation have a word of advice for Bilal, be careful from those who see a lot of so called aviation journalists in their offices or outside. Because PIA mafias don’t play by the book they play by leaks. Good luck to Bilal for his future and the future of PIA.