MULTAN, June 26: Authorities had to send Mukhtar Mai, the Meerwala gang-rape victim, to Islamabad by road as the PIA flight on which she was scheduled to travel had to be cancelled for some technical reasons.

Mukhtar Mai and her aide Naseem Ghazlani were driven to the federal capital in an escort of Elite Force and the Punjab police.

She and her aide were reportedly provided air tickets to come to Islamabad where the Supreme Court is taking up her appeal against acquittal of the accused in her case by the Lahore High Court, Multan bench.

Initially, she had refused to travel by air, particularly, on the state-provided tickets saying that on the one hand ruling PML MNAs were accusing her of amassing huge fortunes through foreign donors while on the other the government was ‘favouring’ her.

She said that Dera Ghazi Khan DIG Hamayun Raza Shafi told her that her travelling by road cost more to the exchequer on account of her security than travelling by air. “PM’s advisor Nilofer Bakhtiar was also of the same view”, she added.

Mukhtar Mai and her aide were brought to the Multan airport amid tight security. They were scheduled to aboard the PIA flight PK-386. The plane, however, developed some fault in its hydraulic system before landing at the Multan airport while reaching here from Islamabad via Lahore.

According to local CAA officials, the pilot had to employ emergency brakes while landing. The plane was stopped at the runway and passengers were transported to the lounge from there. The CAA authority said that all passengers remained safe. Repair of the plane would take one or two days, it added. — Correspondent