ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly was informed on Wednesday that former prime minister Nawaz Sharif during his tenure used helicopters for 2,167 hours, while incumbent premier Imran Khan has so far used them for 33 hours only.

The house was also told that out of the total 10 helicopters of the Cabinet Division four are unserviceable.

Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Mohammad Khan, while taking part in the debate over status of helicopters in the fleet of Cabinet Division, also said that former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi used helicopters for 464 hours.

Earlier, in response to a question asked by PPP’s Nasiba Channa, the minister in charge of Cabinet Division in his written reply stated that 2xUH-I H helicopters gifted by the US in 1974 and 2xBell — 412helicopters, which were purchased in 1992, were unserviceable.

The Cabinet Division said that 5xAW-139 were purchased in 2007 and IxAW-139 was bought in 2016.

Ali Mohammad Khan told the house that various proposals, including auctioning of out of order helicopters, were under consideration. It is also being considered to give these helicopters to some other government organisations, he said.

Challenging the reply of Cabinet Division about use of helicopters, PPP’s Shagufta Jumani said that helicopters were not being used for anti-smuggling surveillance and survey of road construction — one of the uses of these helicopters mentioned by the Cabinet Division in its reply.

She said that helicopters are mainly being used for transporting VIPs. To this, the minister of state said that the helicopters were misused in the past, but not by the PTI government.

He said these helicopters had also been used for transportation of ‘Siri Pai’.

Published in Dawn, November 1st, 2018