NAB chairman takes notice of Imran's usage of state-owned helicopter

K-P CM allegedly misused his authority by unofficially letting PTI chief use a state-owned helicopter

ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Friday launched an inquiry into the alleged misuse of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government-owned helicopters by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan.

The inquiry has been ordered against Imran and K-P Chief Minister Pervaiz Khattak for misuse of authority and use of a couple of government owned helicopters at a cheap price.

NAB has directed its K-P-wing to conduct the inquiry into the report of private use of two helicopters, MI-17 and Ecureuil, for taking hours long flights to facilitate party chief Imran Khan.

According to reports, Imran had used MI 17 helicopter for 22 hours and Ecureuil helicopter for 52 hours and paid only Rs28,000 per hour for a collective 74 hours of flying. The total cost of flying hours paid was Rs2.1072 million.



NAB said if PTI chairman would have chartered a MI-17 Helicopter from a private firm, the rates could be from Rs1 million to Rs1.2 million per hour. Whereas, the per hour flying rate of chartering an Ecurreuil helicopter from a private firm is supposed to be from Rs500,000 to Rs600,000 per hour.

According to the principal adviser to K-P CM on technical training and aviation, the per hour expenditures of an official helicopter were from Rs150,000 to Rs200,000. And PTI chairman had to pay Rs150,000 per hour on use of official helicopter. Total payable should be Rs111,100,000 but the amount mentioned in the official documents is only Rs2.1072 million.

According to the report, the PTI chairman used MI 17 for his private visits to Kohat, Peshawar, Mardan, Battagram, Dir and Kamrat from Banni Gala (Islamabad). Likewise, Imran Khan had used Ecureuil Helicopter for his private visits to Peshawar, Kohat, Abbottabad, Haripur, Chitral, Swat and Nowshera from Bani Gala (Islamabad).



Chairman NAB has directed DG NAB K-P to inquire whether the CM has legal powers to give sensitive assets like helicopters for private use and to inquire on what pretext Imran Khan had been allowed the use of official helicopters. The probe would also determine whether the helicopters had been given to other persons also for private use, and whether the CM had misused his authority. The basic aim of NAB's inquiry is to ban the misuse of official helicopters.