LAHORE: In order to make the Pakistan International Airlines to clear its outstanding payment, the Iranian aviation authorities warned they would not release the aircraft of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif during his visit to Tehran last month.

According to an official correspondence between some PIA officials, which is available with Dawn, the Iranian airport authorities had refused to release PM’s aircraft at Tehran airport on May 12 until the PIA cleared the outstanding payment.

Iran Air officials responsible for handling the VVIP flight showed their annoyance over the PIA failure in clearing the pending invoice of PK-788 despite the passage of four months and warned it would not release the PM’s aircraft.

To avoid embarrassment, the PIA cleared the invoice the same day (May 12). The prime minister, however, was not informed about this development.

The PK-788 (London to Karachi flight) had to make an emergency landing at Tehran airport on Jan 18 when a passenger, Abdul Jabbar Abbasi, reported some serious health problem and died later. The Iran Air was requested to make all required arrangements plus an ambulance with a doctor before the landing of the aircraft.

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 fueling of the aircraft but due to unavailability of cash the aircraft was cleared on credit by the airport authorities.

The Iran Air paid $5646 for these ground handling services.

PIA spokesman Mashhood Tajwar said the incident was not in his knowledge.

“As far as the payment of outstanding $5,646 is concerned, the PIA has already cleared it,” he said.

Published in Dawn, June 4th, 2014