Bhoja Air: Founder files suit for not receiving full payment

Purchasing conditions also not met, says Bhoja in petition

KARACHI: Farouk Omar Bhoja, the Karachi-based businessman who started the private airliner Bhoja Air in the 1990s, has said that he had sold the majority shareholding to Arshad Jalil but never received a full payment.

In a recovery suit of over Rs242 million filed against Jalil in the Sindh High Court, Farouk claims that the sale agreement was revised twice but neither was the entire amount paid nor the conditions met by the purchasing party.

Jalil, who for a long time led Shaheen Air International, bought the majority shareholding of 95% between October 2011 and January 2012 against a total consideration of Rs110 million, the suit says.

“They completely ousted the plaintiffs from the affairs of the company and took various steps including acquiring of aircrafts, obtaining Air Worthiness Certificate and Air Operator Certificates and other regulatory approvals,” the suit says.

As per the deal, Jalil and other shareholders were also bound to pay airline’s liabilities of Rs115 million, owed to Civil Aviation Authority, Shell and others. But that never happened. In April 2012, Bhoja Air’s aircraft carrying 127 people from Karachi to Islamabad crashed, killing everyone onboard.

As the jet was insured, Bhoja Air received $800,000 in compensation from the insurance company but the money was diverted to Sharjah-based Jet Aviation, also owned and controlled by Jalil, the petition said.

Subsequently, the new owners also sold airline’s ground handling service and other assets, moving the proceeds abroad while Farouk and his family kept waiting to be paid, it said.

The suit has also requested the court to ask all related parties to return assets of the airlines to the plaintiffs.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 3^rd, 2015.

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