KARACHI: Pakistan Peoples Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Saturday asked Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi to shelve attempts to privatise Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) and Pakistan Steel.

He said the party will offer stiff resistance both inside and outside the parliament if the proposed privatisation goes ahead. 

Bilawal also said that common man, as well as experts, have been taken aback by the decision to privatise the national airline. 

?Both Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and disqualified prime minister Nawaz Sharif are conspiring to sell PIA and Pakistan Steel most probably to their hidden partners,? said the PPP chairman and added that they are selling national assets with one hand and purchasing by other.

He also warned PML-N government to stop personalization in the name of privatization and called upon the masses, especially the trade unions to join PPP's struggle against the policies being imposed on the people of Pakistan.

Minister for Privatisation Daniyal Aziz earlier said that the government is determined to finalise the privatisation of PIA "core business" by April 15.

The government is trying to make the balance sheet of the PIA positive from negative, said Daniyal Aziz.

PIA was among 68 state-owned companies earmaked for privatisation in return for a $6.7 billion International Monetary Fund package that helped the government stave off a default in 2013. 

Despite some initial success, the process stalled in 2016 after staff protests caused havoc with PIA operations and the government passed a law that effectively made it impossible to privatise the airline.