RAWALPINDI, May 21: Customs authorities at Benazir Bhutto International Airport on Monday recovered foreign currency equivalent to over Rs70 million lying in lavatory of PIA flight from Karachi to Dubai via Islamabad.

On a tip off that a large amount of foreign currency was being smuggled to Dubai, a raiding party comprising Tahir Habib Cheema deputy superintendent and Inamul Haq superintendent of Customs was formed to foil the bid.

Inamul Haq shared the details saying that shortly after the PIA’s flight (PK-368) landed at the airport and the passengers of Islamabad disembarked, the raiding team walked into the plane and started searching it. The team recovered five packs of currency notes lying in two lavatories of the aircraft. Inam said: “Nobody from the passengers on board traveling for Dubai claimed the currency which was later seized.”

He said it was suspected that the owner of the currency might have planned to pick it soon after the flight for Dubai had taken off. The team found 24,000 Saudi Riyals, Norwegian Krone 400,000 and Canadian dollars 50,000 from the packets. —Mohammad Asghar