At a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Aviation on Tuesday, Arshad Malik, CEO of the national airline, gave a briefing on the Rose Welt Hotel.
In a meeting of the committee chaired by Mushahidullah Khan, the PIA chief said that the Rose Welt Hotel was not being sold under any circumstances but a plan was being prepared to rebuild the hotel. "There is an option to demolish the hotel building and build a 70- to 80-storey building so that the hotel can be made profitable by reducing costs."
The PIA chief told the committee that the international organization had valued the hotel at 56 562 million.
Chairman Committee Mushahidullah Khan said that the value of the hotel has reached 1700 million. A year ago it was a profitable company. Now how did it go into deficit?
Air Marshal Arshad Malik told the Senate committee that at different times since 2015, it has been sometimes profitable and sometimes in deficit. The hotel owes 105 million, the government has repaid قرض 145 million in debt and other expenses since the hotel closed, and the non-payment of the loan could lead to the bankruptcy of the Rose Welt Hotel. ۔
The CEO said the privatization commission's financial advisory was looking into the matter and would decide its future.
It may be recalled that on October 9, the permanent closure of the Rose Welt Hotel, owned by the National Airline of Pakistan (PIA), was announced in New York. However, the decision was later reversed.
The Roosevelt Hotel announced on its website that "it will be closing its doors to guests from October 31 in the future."
"Due to the current economic impact, the Roosevelt Hotel is sadly closing its doors after welcoming guests for 100 years," the announcement said.
The Islamabad High Court was also approached against the sale of the hotel, where the government had assured not to sell Rose Welt.
