February 16, 2007	Friday	Muharram 27, 1428

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ISLAMABAD, Feb 15: Parliamentary Secretary for Defence Tanveer Hussain Syed on Thursday stunned the National Assembly by disclosing that the Ministry of Defence had already received the inquiry report of last year’s Fokker crash in Multan, but the defence minister was unable to make it public due to “some hurdles”.

“The report is public property and we will bring it on record,” the parliamentary secretary said in categorical terms while replying to a question of People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) MNA Fauzia Wahab about the delay in the presentation of the report.

The secretary said it was true that Defence Minister Rao Sikandar Iqbal had committed on the floor of the house that the Fokker crash report would be presented before the parliament in three months’ time. He said the minister was “struggling” to fulfil his commitment. Without explaining, the secretary said “some contents” of the report were creating “hurdles” in its release.

All 45 people, including four crew members, on board a Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) Fokker plane were killed when the Lahore-bound aircraft slammed into a wheat field near Multan airport soon after its takeoff on July 10, last year.

Replying to another question of the PPP MNA, the parliamentary secretary admitted that some lapses had been found during the calibration of Multan Airport.

He also identified serious calibration lapses at other airports and feared that accidents could take place even to VIP aircraft. He, however, expressed the hope that steps were being taken to overcome these problems. He said at present, 14 out of 17 airports of the country were operational.