LAHORE: News about how Iranian aviation authorities strong-armed Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) to clear outstanding payments of over $5,000 has come to light, which reveals information not even the Pakistani premier was apparently made aware of. Iran is reported to have refused to let Prime Minister Nawaz Sharifs aircraft to take off during his recent Iran visit, unless PIA cleared the payments that had been due for over four months.
DawnNews reports that according to official correspondence between some PIA officials, the Iranian airport authorities had refused to release the PMs aircraft at Tehran airport on May 12 until the PIA cleared the outstanding payment.
Iran Air officials responsible for handling the VVIP flight reportedly expressed their annoyance over PIAs failure to clear the pending invoice of PK-788 despite the passage of four months and warned it would not release the PMs aircraft. To avoid embarrassment, the PIA cleared the invoice the same day (May 12), but did not inform the PM about the development.
This relates to an incident on Jan 18, 2014, when PIA flight PK-788 (London to Karachi) was forced to make an emergency landing at Tehran airport, when a passenger, Abdul Jabbar Abbasi, reported some serious health problems and eventually died. Iran Air was requested to make all necessary arrangements, plus an ambulance with a doctor before the aircraft landed.
The passenger was taken to Azadi Hospital after the landing. The amount of over $5,000 was to be paid in terms of landing/parking/navigation/weather and fuelling of the aircraft but due to unavailability of cash, the aircraft was cleared on credit by the airport authorities and Iran Air picked up the tab for $5646 towards ground handling charges.
However, the PIA spokesman Mashhood Tajwar claimed ignorance about the entire episode. He claimed
As far as the payment of outstanding $5,646 is concerned, the PIA has already cleared it.
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