PESHAWAR: Though the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has time and again criticised VIP culture as the main impediment to progress, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Chief Minister (CM) Pervez Khattak on Sunday used his official helicopter to attend a wedding ceremony in Mansehra.
Per details, CM Khattak was invited to the wedding of Qaumi Watan Party (QWP) lawmaker Ibrar Tanoli’s son, for which he did not refrain from using the official helicopter for the purpose. Sources said that Tanoli and Khattak had recently forged good relations, and the former was likely to join PTI before the 2018 general elections.
It was further revealed that KP Excise and Taxation Minister Mian Jamshed and PTI lawmaker from Kohistan Zar Gul Khan also travelled with the chief minister in the helicopter. When contacted, CM House spokesman Behramand Jan had refuted the claims that Khattak used an official helicopter for personal business.
The spokesman said, “The chief minister travelled to Abbottabad to attend official meetings, and he (Pervez Khattak) did not use the official helicopter to attend a wedding ceremony.”
According to the spokesman, the CM went to Abbottabad for a plots allotment ceremony held in the small industrial estate of Abbottabad-II. The chief minister later attended a Parents’ Day event held at Pine Hills Public School, he added.
It is important to mention here that this is not the first time that the misuse of official helicopters by the KP government have raised concerns among taxpayers.
Earlier in March, the PTI-led provincial government faced a lot of heat from the public and politicians after Zar Gul Khan, a prospective candidate for PK-62 by-election, made use of the official helicopter for electioneering in Kohistan.
After the news made headlines, the provincial government had issued a statement saying that the helicopter was actually used by PTI Member of National Assembly (MNA) Abdul Haq, who went to Kohistan in order to resolve a serious dispute between the people of Gilgit and the locals. The KP government had also claimed that Zar Gul Khan was only accompanying the MPA during the visit.
Later in August, the KP government again faced criticism when KP Elementary and Secondary Education Minister Atif Khan used the official helicopter to inaugurate the first school under the KP Smart Schools Project in Lakki Marwat. The project, also known as container schools, was later discontinued due to technical faults found in the containers.
