PIA-2The Pakistan International Airline (PIA) managed to bring back Pakistani passengers from Malaysia after one of its planes was held up by the authorities in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday.
After the passage of about 40 hours following PIA’s Boeing 777 stopped from taking off at the Kuala Lumpur Airport, the Airlines finally able to manage 54 Pakistanis stranded in Malaysia to send them back.
The national carrier plane was stopped for failing to pay arrears of lease following orders from a court in Malaysia. The 54 passengers reached Islamabad from Kuala Lumpur via flight QR-632.
On arrival at Islamabad airport, the stranded Pakistanis piled up complaints against Pakistani embassy officials in Malaysia and the PIA staff. The passengers said the PIA and the diplomatic staff did not cooperate with them and provided no food or also did not arrange any sort of accommodation. They further complaint that they slept on the floor of the Kuala Lumpur Airport for two days.
It is pertinent to note that Boeing plane of BMH registration was stopped at Kuala Lumpur airport over the non-payment of $14 million to the lease company.
A spokesman for the PIA, however, said that 167 passengers in the plane were being looked after well and that they would fly to Pakistan on board a foreign airline.
Terming the court orders ‘unjustified’, he said that the orders had been given in connection with a case sub judice in a UK court. “This is an intolerable situation, and the PIA management has requested the government of Pakistan to resolve this issue through diplomatic means,” he said.
