KARACHI, Feb 9: The PIA ticket, reserved in the name of the kidnapped journalist Daniel Pearl, was cancelled in the wee hours of Saturday, and the government was contemplating action against the ticket-issuing travel agency.

According to the reports reaching here from the federal capital, the government had taken notice of the ticket issued in the name of Daniel Pearl, and would investigate into it.

Sindh police chief Syed Kamal Shah said the police in Islamabad had begun probing into the issuance of air ticket in the name of Daniel Pearl on a PIA flight PK-757, which left for London on Saturday.

Mr Shah told Dawn that the interior ministry was in a better position to speak on this issue. However, he said the police were trying to know how and when the booking was made and ticket issued.

Sources in the aviation sector said the status of the ticket was RRI and its P&R number was EEEFQH H. The seat could not be confirmed if all the documentary formalities were not fulfilled, which included the production of photograph of the passenger, his passport along with photocopies of its pages having the valid visa. The same procedure was adopted when the seat was cancelled, the sources added.

Meanwhile, APP quoted a government spokesman in Islamabad on Saturday as denying that Daniel Pearl was booked on PIA flight after his recovery.

Asked to comment on Dawn report, the spokesman said that Pearl had not been recovered and efforts to get him free from terrorist den were still on.

Talking to newsmen after presiding over a book launching ceremony in Karachi on Saturday evening, Interior Minister, Moinuddin Haider also said that Daniel Pearl had not been recovered as yet.

He said that when Pearl was recovered, he would not be sent abroad immediately and that it would be ascertained first as to who the culprits were, who had committed this crime.

“So there is no truth in the news item that Daniel Pearl has been recovered,” Moinuddin Haider said.

The minister was of the view that this crime had been committed by some ‘very professional people’ who suddenly had become silent, neither sending any e-mail nor using the telephone, “because we have nabbed their three associates and...found a lead.”

When asked whether the main suspect had been identified, Gen Haider said Shaikh Omar was the prime suspect in the case, and progress towards Pearl’s recovery would be made once he was caught.

We have succeeded in pinpointing the organization possibly behind this act...which is a banned one, and I hope we will soon lay our hands on the prime suspect, he said.