The Minister for Aviation, Ghulam Sarwar Khan, has claimed that an ‘Indianlobby’ is responsible for last month’s impoundment of the PakistanInternational Airlines (PIA) passenger airplane in Malaysia. He made theseremarks during an informal interaction with reporters in Taxila.

He also blamed the former Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) governmentfor leasing the PIA aircraft from a foreign company at a higher marketvalue.——————————

Sarwar said that the former Advisor for Aviation, Shujaat Azeem, hadattempted to obtain kickbacks from the aircraft lease contract.

“Azeem was ‘controlled’ by some Indians,” the minister claimed, adding thatthis is why the incumbent government had decided against paying the leasewhen it expired in July 2020.——————————

The national airline had to face embarrassment on an international level inmid-January when one of its Boeing aircraft had been confiscated inMalaysia on the orders of a local court because PIA had been unable to paythe lease for the plane.

However, following