LAHORE: Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz is facing mounting pressure to make public the records behind the provincial government’s Gulfstream G500 executive jet, after ARY News anchor Kamran Khan on Tuesday demanded documentary proof of how the aircraft was bought and whether the chief minister has paid for a recent family trip to London aboard it.
In a detailed segment of his programme On My Radar, Kamran Khan described the aircraft, valued at roughly Rs11 billion, as the centre of one of the most serious controversies of Maryam Nawaz’s tenure, and said its fallout could cast a shadow over her political career.
Kamran Khan opened the segment with a question the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has heard before; where are the receipts? He recalled that nearly ten years ago the same demand, raised over the Sharif family’s London flats during the Panama Papers case, preceded former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s departure from the Prime Minister House.
The difference this time, he said, is that the question concerns an aircraft bought with money from Punjab’s public treasury. He framed it as a question of public trust, asking whether the purchase, which he said was ordered in February this year, was a fair use of resources in a province where millions are struggling with inflation and unemployment.
According to the programme, it has been confirmed that the chief minister travelled to London a few days ago aboard the government jet, accompanied by members of her family, to attend her daughter’s graduation ceremony. Dawn reported that she returned to Lahore on Wednesday last week.
The government’s account of who paid for the flight has changed. Khan noted that Punjab Information Minister Azma Bokhari first posted on X that the chief minister had already paid the expenses of the Lahore-London flight before departing. The next day, he said, Ms Bokhari stated that the costs would be calculated once the visit was complete, after which Maryam Nawaz would pay the amount through proper legal procedure.
As of the latest public statements, the Punjab government had not disclosed the final cost of the trip.
Senior Provincial Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb, responding to questions about the acquisition, said the aircraft had been bought to deliver relief to the public, and that anyone who had a problem with it was free to challenge it.
Another PML-N representative, in a clip aired on the programme, argued that the jet is owned by the Punjab government as a provincial asset, that the chief minister had not bought it for herself, and that its high price alone did not make the purchase wrong.
Officials have also tied the jet to Air Punjab, the province’s planned airline. A government representative said on the programme that Air Punjab is building a fleet of different aircraft, some purchased and some leased, ahead of launching its services this year, and that the Gulfstream is part of that plan.
That explanation has not satisfied everyone in the ruling party. Minister of State for Law and Justice Barrister Aqeel Malik said on air that he did not believe the jet could be meant for the airline, and that the progress of its licensing and compliance still needed to be examined. The justifications offered so far, he said, did not establish that it was an airline aircraft. “Better justification needs to come out,” he added.
Khan also referred to a post on X by Federal Minister and senior PML-N leader Ahsan Iqbal, published around the same time, which cited the example of the Umayyad caliph Umar bin Abdul Aziz. Ahsan Iqbal wrote that when a nation is burdened by inflation, unemployment and the rising cost of necessities, simplicity, moderation and regard for public sentiment become a moral responsibility for its leadership. Kamran Khan interpreted the post as a quiet warning to the party leadership; Mr Iqbal did not name anyone.
Outside the party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) MPA Waqas Mahmood Maan has submitted an adjournment motion in the Punjab Assembly seeking a debate on the use of the aircraft, claiming that around Rs12.5 million from the public exchequer was spent on fuel, parking and related costs. The motion asks who authorised the expenditure and under what law. PTI leader Moonis Elahi and former federal minister Fawad Chaudhry have also criticised the trip on social media.
This is not the first time the chief minister’s travel has drawn questions. Her official visit to Japan in August last year sparked controversy after family members accompanied her. At the time, Azma Bokhari said on record that every rupee of official spending would be audited, and that the family’s expenses had been paid from the chief minister’s own accounts.
Since taking office, Maryam Nawaz has made official visits to Japan, Thailand, Türkiye, Azerbaijan, Brazil and, twice, China, according to the programme, in addition to private and medical visits to Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
Khan said citizens had already sought details of the aircraft’s price and the chief minister’s travel costs under the right to information guaranteed by Article 19A of the Constitution, but the Chief Minister’s Office had stayed silent and cited legal exemptions. If the government believes everything was done lawfully, he said, it should release the files, the governing rules and the receipts.
The row comes days after CM Punjab Maryam Nawaz welcomed the prime minister’s relief package as a positive step amid the global oil surge.
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