RAWALPINDI: Days after a similar bust at Heathrow Airport, 20kg of heroin was found hidden aboard another London-bound Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight at Benazir Bhutto International Airport on Monday.

Maryam Nawaz Sharif, the prime minister’s daughter, was also among passengers who were delayed for around two hours while PK-785 was searched by the authorities.

A search by Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF), Airport Security Force (ASF) and PIA intelligence personnel led to the recovery of 10 packets of 2kg each, hidden in the plane’s tail section.

Sources said that during a routine search of the aircraft’s last galley, the team’s suspicions were aroused. They opened up a portion of the galley, which led to the “recovery of small pillows hidden inside the cavities. The pillows contained a significant quantity of heroin.”

Drugs hidden in pillows found from airplane’s tail; opposition fears embarrassments may lead to airline’s privatisation

The PIA aircraft had arrived from Oslo at about 11am on Monday and was parked at Bay 9. It was scheduled to depart for London at 1:10pm, but was delayed and finally took off around 3:45pm.

PK-785 was one of four aircraft searched on Monday, a PIA spokesperson said. Sources said that as many as 20 people, including PIA catering and ground staff, were taken into custody for questioning.

Advisor to Prime Minister on Aviation Sardar Mehtab Abbasi has ordered an investigation to nab the culprits. An investigation team, headed by Additional Inspector General Hussain Asghar (AIG) of Punjab Police has been formed to unearth the racket, the PIA spokesperson said.

The government had formed a Central Operational Committee (COC), headed by the Civil Aviation Authority Director General Irfan Elahi to unearth an “organised gang” involved in trafficking drugs through the national flag carrier and to ensure foolproof security at all airports across the country.

The decision to form the COC was taken after the seizure of heroin from a PIA plane at Heathrow on May 17, 2017. British authorities, however, have not shared with Pakistan any details of the investigation being conducted by the UK’s National Crime Agency.

The find is the latest in a series of embarrassments the national flag carrier has had to endure in recent weeks.

Talking to Dawn, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Information Secretary Shafqat Mehmood said the recovery of drugs from PIA planes was tantamount to the “collapse of government agencies, including ANF, ASF, customs and others” operating at the airports.

“It is embarrassing for us that narcotics are being recovered from PIA planes.”

Commenting on the recovery of drugs from PIA planes, PPP Spokesperson Farhatullah Babar said the deterioration of PIA was a matter of concern and a Senate committee had already taken notice of the situation.

The senator said it looked as if the continuous recovery of drugs from PIA planes was part of a government policy to prepare grounds for the privatization of the airline.

“PIA has been going down the drain over the past several years. Taking serious notice of this decline, the Senate Special Committee on PIA recently made some far-reaching recommendations to re-structure and rescue the national airline,” he said.

Recent incidents such as the unauthorized entry of a Chinese women in the cockpit of flight from Japan, the over two hour nap by a senior pilot in the business class section of a flight to London and the discovery of heroin from PIA planes have put the airline in a bind.

Published in Dawn, May 23rd, 2017