The chairman of the committee, Lt. Gen. (Retired) Javed Ashraf, said that the senate body wanted to help PIA stage a turn around provided it has some sound, viable and practical bail out plan.

'Give us some time limit and a practical plan that you would be able to wriggle out of the present difficulties and we will extend our all out support,' he said.

PIA officials blamed the Rs.61 billion loan the airline had taken from local banks at a high rate of interest as the root cause of its problems.

Captain Ijaz Haroon, the Managing Director of PIA, has already admitted that the airlines has technically gone bankrupt.

'I concede that PIA has technically gone bankrupt. But all this did not happen in a day or overnight or a month or a year and a half. The airlines had technically gone bankrupt since 2000,' Haroon said in a Geo News programme last Monday.

He said that PIA suffered a loss of Rs.13 billion in 2001 and the government injected a handsome amount which reduced the losses till 2004. But the government has not been providing credible financial support since 2005, pushing the institution towards bankruptcy, he added.