ISLAMABAD, Dec 19: PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif who has been disqualified from contesting the Jan 8 elections for evading tax on a helicopter he had used in his mid-90s election campaign, has again acquired a Russian helicopter on lease to reach out to his voters in far-flung areas, Dawn has learnt.

Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) sources told Dawn on Wednesday that the government had so far not given permission to Mr Sharif to use the helicopter for the election campaign.

The sources said that opinion of all relevant departments had been sought on the use of helicopters by the PML-N chief.

They said that although the helicopter had arrived in Lahore from Georgia, Mr Sharif had not been able to use it.

When contacted, PML-N Information Secretary Ahsan Iqbal said he did not know whether his party chief had started using the chopper or not. He confirmed that the party leadership, in its last meeting, had suggested to Mr Sharif to hire a helicopter to be able to reach out to voters during the 21-day election campaign.

Mr Iqbal said that Mr Sharif had returned from Saudi Arabia for taking part in elections quite late, and now he had very limited time to go to every area he had planned to visit.

He said Mr Sharif had used a private helicopter during his election campaign in 1993 as well.

In July 2000, Mr Sharif was sentenced to 14 years imprisonment with a fine of Rs20m in the helicopter case. An Accountability Court in Attock had also barred Mr Sharif from holding public office for 21 years in the same case. The prosecution had accused Mr Sharif of owing a Russian-made MI-8 helicopter during the mid-90s and, despite spending more than $1 million on the helicopter, he had neither declared its ownership nor paid tax on it.