Pakistan International Airline’s acting CEO has hit out to all the elements accusing him and said that “my conscience is clear. I haven’t done anything wrong. There’s no question of any corruption on my part,”. Bern spoke to Reuters about the today’s developments and reports that mentioned his name. Today interior minister Chaudhary Nisar Ali Khan confirmed that Bernd Hildenbrand name is placed on exit control list that affectively stop him from leaving Pakistan without a court order or prior permission of interior ministry.
In Reuters news report Bernd Hildenbrand said there appears to be some confusion within the ministry about how airplane leases work. Which is evident from the statement of interior minister who compared the lease prices of Shaheen Air’s 10 year old Airbus A330-200 on dry lease to PIA’s wet leased Airbus A330-300 (a bigger aircraft) which was less than 2 years old and on dry lease. Imagine if the interior minister could not understand these basic points how misguided and misleading the report could be that he is referring to.
Hildenbrand said airplane lease prices have come down since the deal was struck with a Sri Lankan airline last year and pointed out “all major transactions were made with the approval of the Board of Directors” and according to the rules. “Whatever I did was to the best of my ability and in the best interest of PIA,” he added.
The interior minister or the investigators who are inquiring this matter do not even understand the difference between dry lease and wet lease. The investigators who Do not get the difference between an old plane’s lease price from the lease price of an almost new plane how can we trust their investigation?