PIA employee handed over to ANF over heroin smuggling charges

ANF arrests Iqbal Ghurki in Lahore for allegedly stashing away bags of heroin in several flights

LAHORE: The Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) on Wednesday apprehended a Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) official for his alleged involvement in smuggling heroin on various flights, Express News reported.

According to initial reports, ANF arrested Iqbal Ghurki in Lahore for stashing away bags of heroin in several flights of the national flag carrier. Authorities at PIA were also informed about the arrest.

"Heroin was being smuggled on PIA flights with the help of one of its employees Iqbal Ghurki," ANF officials said. However, PIA spokesperson Daniyal Gilani did not directly address the arrest, saying some PIA officials had been handed over to agencies for investigation.

Attempted drug smuggling: PIA hands over few suspected staffers to agencies for investigation. pic.twitter.com/oESI4Jqx2J

— Digi Fusion (@DigiFusion24) August 17, 2016

"After recent incidents of attempted drug smuggling in PIA aircraft, the security and vigilance department of the airline carried out an in-house exercise to scrutinise the conduct of its staff members. In view of the findings several employees have been shuffled from their places of posting while few have been handed over to agencies for formal investigation," he said.

Earlier, taking offence at the delay in fixing responsibility for stashing away around 30kg of heroin in two different flights of the national flag carrier, a parliamentary panel in July gave a 60-day deadline to investigating authorities for completing the task.

According to details, the matter was taken up by the National Assembly Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat with Rana Muhammad Hayat Khan in the chair.

During the proceedings, the committee expressed displeasure over the slow progress in investigations. The Customs and Anti Narcotics Force (ANF) were unable to fix responsibility for hiding heroin in two different flights of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA).



It was during the month of May when Customs officials recovered over 27kg heroin from a PIA aircraft during an intelligence-based raid in Karachi. Officials conducted the raid at Karachi’s Jinnah International Airport, and seized nine packets of heroin from the lavatory of a Europe-bound aircraft parked in the hangar. In November last year 3 kg heroin was also found in a Dubai-bound flight of the PIA.