Investment in private airline made Ali Jahangir PM's special assistant: Mandviwalla

ISLAMABAD: Deputy Chairman Senate Saleem Mandviwalla on Friday said Pakistan’s former ambassador to the US, Ali Jahangir Siddiqui and his father Jahangir Siddiqui, were partners in a private airline and they should face the case in the court, ARY News reported.

Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, Mandviwalla, in an apparent reference to Air Blue, said Ali Jahangir was appointed a special assistant to the then Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi in return of his investment in the airline.

Air Blue is said to be owned by former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, though he has denied it in the past, calling himself ‘just a shareholder’ in the airline.

Mandviwalla said he would present evidence in the court that Ali Jahangir and Jahangir Siddiqui were partners in the airline.

He alleged that the notice sent by Ali Jahangir Siddiqui to him was apparently a tactic to intimidate him and the senators, so they remain silent on important issues.

“Ali Jahangir should prove that he did not invest in the private airline”, he said.

He said former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi had never denied that Ali Jahangir and Jahangir Siddiqui were partners.

“Why would he deny it when it was said by the airline owner himself”, he said.

Mandviwalla asked why the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) did not summon them.

He said that there had been many hearings of the case in one year, and he was neither sent any court notice nor called for a hearing.

“The private airline ownership case was filed in 2017. I have been sent a notice for the one-year-old case now. I will appear before the court and prove it there too,” he said.