July 29, 2008	Tuesday	Rajab 25, 1429

LONDON, July 28: A committee comprising representatives from the Pakistan High Commission and the PIA has been constituted to find out the reasons behind the delay in the departure of Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani from Heathrow on his way to Washington on Sunday and fix responsibility.

The flight which was to depart at 10:30 in the morning could get clearance only at around 11am reportedly at the personal intervention of High Commissioner Wajid Shamsul Hasan who talked to top officials at the Foreign Office and finally the VVIP plane took off at around 11:30.

The delay in the take off at Heathrow and dark clouds over Washington are said to have caused the flight to miss the arrival schedule at the Andrew air force base by not more than 15 minutes.

When asked about the matter, the High Commissioner admitted that there was some delay in the take off because of what he said a breakdown in communication at some point and “the Heathrow authorities had allotted a 5:30pm slot for the PM’s flight instead of 10:30am and this we came to know only when we were already half way to the airport.”

According to the original schedule, the prime minister had no stopover in London and was to have passed through Manchester after a couple of hours’ stay there for refuelling.

However, for some as-yet-unknown reasons a last minute change was made and stopover arrangements were made in London and while doing so it seems the communication link broke down at some point and the agency responsible for intimating the Heathrow authorities about the ETD ‘forgot’ about it.

When asked why a committee was being constituted to inquire into a matter which seemingly did not cause any serious damage, the HC said he was taking precaution for the future so that no such goof ups take place again.