Imran, entourage used K-P’s helicopters twice

The flights ended up costing the provincial exchequer a large sum of money, over half a million rupees

PESHAWAR:

Documents submitted to the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Friday showed that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief Imran Khan and other senior leaders of the party used provincial government helicopters on two occasions. These flights ended up costing the provincial exchequer a large sum of money, over half a million rupees.

Details shared with lawmakers in response to PML-N MPA Saleh Mohammad Khan’s query show that the PTI chief and other leaders used K-P government’s MI-17 choppers twice last year – on July 28 and August 7.

The July flight details show an hour and 45 minute-long flight from the helipad in Bani Gala to Kohat and Peshawar. Passengers included Imran Khan, Naeemul Haq, Shah Farman, Mushtaq Ghani, Faisal Javed, Javed Chaudary, Arshad Sharif, Fareeha Awais, Shahram Tarakai, Shaheen Sardezai and Khalid Masood.

Details for August 7 show that Imran Khan, Pervez Khattak, Naeemul Haq, Amin Aslam, Aun Chaudhry, Imran Ismail and Murad Saeed flew from Bani Gala to Matta and Mingora in Swat as well as to Peshawar. The flight time was three hours and 25 minutes.

The establishment department calculated the cost of an hour-long flight is Rs105,836. At this rate, the more than five hour-long flights of the PTI chief and his entourage amount to over Rs520,000.

Flight hours of government officials on the MI-17 chopper are shown to be 116 hours and 27 minutes. At the rate of Rs105,836 per hour, the total cost of these hauls is calculated to over Rs12 million. The MI-17 made about 60 sorties from July 1, 2013 to October 1, 2014, while the AS350B3 chopper, which was later grounded, flew 41 sorties of about 82 hours and 25 minutes from July 1, 2013 to June 30, 2014, costing the province over Rs2.1 million.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 9^th, 2015.