Converting Biman into a PLC is one of the several measures suggested to make it a viable undertaking. It is to be done by June, according to the government plans. But we are not sure whether that will bring about any degree of substantive or qualitative changes in the organisation. Having it owned by seven public sector organisations may not necessarily invest the management with the required efficiency and operational competence, the lack of which has been the major cause of its current pitiable state.

This we understand is a transitional step towards a new direction, an immediate action to stop the haemorrhaging. But we are convinced that at a time when drastic measures are required to change Biman's state what we have can at best be a move towards an ill-defined direction. For example, we are not aware as to who will comprise the proposed Board or who will be its head, and insofar as transforming Biman into a PLC, one is not sure when the shares will be offered to the public. But be that as it may, if the management is given only notional autonomy with little freedom of action and hamstrung by government intervention the flag carrier will continue to incur loss in future too.

We believe that the cause of Biman's decay is not really its organisational setup per se but because of the way it was managed over the years, used as a milch cow to line the pockets of the corrupt officials, some connected to the highest seat of power. Unbridled corruption, tolerated and encouraged by the powers that be, bad financial discipline with no accountability to anyone, combined to bring the national flag carrier to this fate. And these issues will have to be addressed urgently before other changes can prove to be of any benefit. Biman should be run like a business organisation on commercial lines. There cannot be any deviation from this fundamental business principle. Otherwise all changes will turn out to be merely cosmetic.