ISLAMABAD, June 10: The People's Party Parliamentarians (PPP) on Thursday filed a reference in the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) against the defence secretary and officials of the Pakistan International Airlines for "causing huge loss to the national exchequer due to corruption" in the purchase of Boeing 777 aircraft.

Shah Khawar filed the reference on behalf of the party in which the secretary of defence, the managing director and the deputy managing director of PIA and others have been made respondents, says a press release.

A spokesman for the PPP, Senator Farhatullah Khan Babar, while challenging the recent claim made on the floor of the National Assembly that PIA owned the Boeing 777 aircraft, said that the company's documents showed that the aircraft had not been actually purchased by it.

The aircraft in question, he said, were actually owned by Taxila Limited of Cayman Islands, a law firm with financing from Citibank of America, from which the PIA had leased them for 12 years through a "Master Leased Agreement".

Interestingly, the senator said, the Taxila Limited was set up on Dec 4, 2003, just 11 days before the signing of the deal with PIA. It had a total share capital of $250, divided into 250 shares of one dollar each.

Only one shareholder, Maples and Calder Inc., the law firm based in Cayman Islands, with an investment share of just one dollar, had signed all the agreements to lease the Boeing 777 aircraft, he added.