Tax-payers kept in the dark about loss of plane worth $250m

The February 6 admission by senior officials of the defence ministry that a Saab-2000 aircraft fitted with an Airborne Early Warning & Control System (AWACS) was totally destroyed in the August 15, 2012 terror attack on the Kamra airbase, implies that the concerned authorities had been keeping the tax payers in the dark for the past six months by claiming that it was only the nose cone of the precious aircraft which had been partially damaged and that it would be repaired by the manufacturers in Sweden.

The fact that the Kamra airbase raiders had completely destroyed one of the four Saab-2000 AWACS planes was made public for the first time by Additional Secretary Defence Rear Admiral Farrokh Ahmad during a meeting of the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Defence on February 6, six months after the Minhas airbase at Kamra was attacked by the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan.

The meeting was chaired by President Zardari’s sister, Azra Fazal Pechuho, as the chairperson of the 18-member Committee.

Read more