PIA has got a CEO for the first time in its history after becoming a company. And the PR apparatus of the newly appointed CEO as well as of PIA is all out to paint the rosiest picture about the CEO. If we go by these columns and news reports appearing in local papers written by the usual bunch you realise that Musharraf Rasool Cyan is the Messiah PIA has been waiting all along. As if he will just caste a magic spell and things will radically change. But there is more than that meets the eye.
So the new CEO’s whole cv, that can fill quite a few column inches is splattered across newspaper columns specially in two newspapers and by reporters from Lahore. We have nowhere said it is a coincidence. But the CV misses a really important part and that is his experience in aviation industry. He could be the best manager ever born in Pakistan, the best administrator but this is not any business nor it is an ordinary organisation. This is PIA, where just in past few years many administrators and officials have failed to turn it around. Interestingly there are more than one of such columns published in The Nation.
One such piece written by Faheem Jahan Zaib stretches out from a newspaper column to a paid advert of the new CEO. For example one columns claims that Dr Cyan “is a polymath having vast experience in the field of public sector management and reforms and training in economics” then it says “Dr Cyan with his experience of 15 years in Pakistan and 12 years internationally, often in management and leadership roles, can do wonders for the airline and his country”. And then the writer goes on to list the so called “successful assignments”. One thinks if this is an appointment for a Vice Chancellor of a university.
Without even mentioning why a newspaper writer/columnist or opinion writer should go on to say things like “Dr Cyan is a right person for the job as in his PhD he studied the competitive aviation industry and evolution of newer trends in the industry in North America”. Seriously? A degree and that too about industry in North American could be helpful in Pakistan and that too in PIA? What are the editors at The Nation smoking because we are sure what the learned writer is on while writing this piece. And to our horror the writer then goes on to drop this shocker “PIA requires a Manager like Dr Cyan, who is a top management professional with a proven track record of…” we decided not to write that nonsensical long list.
And finally the writer shots himself int he foot by writing this “he should be ready for a character assassination attempt by the culprits behind the downfall of our nations pride.”
With due respect to Dr Cyan specifically with reference to such PR writers and columns that “those who thunder don’t pour” is an old saying that they might have missed. In the long list of PIA’s failed manager one thing is common that they all hired such PR novices who had zero understanding of PIA and turned out to be parasites for the manager. With downfall they were the first to abandon the ship. If Mr. Mushrraf is such an world class manager his actions will speak and they will never require such PR boys to write baseless dry columns full of praise. PIA is not an easy organisation and the mess it has become after it was made into a company is not something easy. This all needs attention and ground work not PR articles, if there is a capability let it shine where it should be. Lets be honest if Dr. Musharraf Cyan was not staff officer to the advisor to PM would he still get this very important position? That too in the face of competent, experienced candidates?