Financial irregularities made in construction of Islamabad airport: minister

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Aviation, Ghulam Sarwar Khan, on Thursday said that financial irregularities were made in the construction of Islamabad International Airport, ARY News reported.

Ghulam Sarwar Khan, in his statement, confirmed that the investigation is underway for the irregularities in the construction of Islamabad airport as its cost reached Rs105 billion from Rs38 billion.

While commenting over the financial crisis of the national flag-carrier, the aviation minister said that the deficit of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) was standing at Rs430 billion when the present government came into power in 2018.

He said that the national flag-carrier had overall 33 planes in which 13 aircraft were present in complete ownership of PIA while other planes were on dry and wet lease. Khan detailed that four planes were grounded by the previous government and its spare parts were fixed into other planes.

The aviation minister said that the present government is serious for the restoration of the national flag-carrier and its effective policies brought improvements. Our government had formulated new national policy for aviation.”

“The performance of PIA is satisfactory now. The business plan of the national flag-carrier is also giving positive results and the state-owned entity will get complete support by the federal government.”

He further said that British Airways continued its flight operations again from this year.