Punjab govt clarifies use of helicopter

LAHORE: A Spokesman of Punjab government has taken exception to a news item, published in a section of the press, regarding the government of the Punjab’s helicopters flights, costing Rs37 million.
The spokesman said that the official helicopter of the government of the Punjab is only used for legitimate government functions. He said that Punjab Chief Minister Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif strongly believes in complete transparency and effective good governance, in which there is absolutely no room for any misuse of public facility. He said the Punjab government helicopter has, on numerous occasions, carried out relief activities, during floods and earthquakes, on humanitarian ground.
It is pertinent to mention that Punjab was hit with the worst flooding last year and the helicopter was extensively used in reaching out to the poor and stranded victims. In fact, the Punjab government carried out the largest airborne rescue and relief operation in the history of the province, utilising many helicopters from various federal agencies and departments. These helicopters made many sorties carrying over large amount of relief items and rescuing many marooned persons from the raging waters.
It is unfortunate that the numbers in the said story do not reveal the extent of the human tragedy that was averted and mitigated due the timely utilisation of the helicopter. It is pertinent to mention that the said helicopter has been extensively used in assisting the IDPs at Bannu and other relief operations.
Waseem Abbasi adds: This correspondent stands by his news report and all the facts mentioned in the story as the press handout does not contradict a single fact published by The News on Wednesday. In fact, the information had been reluctantly but officially provided by the government of Punjab itself under the Punjab Transparency and Right to Information Act 2013.
“Number of flights taken by official helicopter from 01.07.2013 to 01.10.2014 are 627. Expenses incurred on fuel during the said period are Rs37.077480 million,” says the letter No SO (AVN) 2-16/2014 (Vol-1) which is signed by additional secretary (Welfare Public Information Officer for Welfare Wing and issued on April 2015). In fact, this clarification cum handout issued by the spokesman raises four major questions for the readers.
Firstly, is it not a fact that Punjab government had dragged its feet for six months in response to an information request filed by this correspondent while under the RTI law the time for response is 14 days? Secondly, is it not true that Punjab government only shared information after a strong ruling by the Punjab Information Commission in favour of this correspondent? Thirdly, is it also not true that Punjab government refused to share names of the persons using the official helicopter of the chief minister? Fourthly, if the helicopter was most used for relief activities as claimed by the spokesman then why the government is not ready to share information about passengers on the pretext of “security concerns”?
It is difficult to understand what part of the news story is being clarified by the spokesman as everything mentioned in the story was based on certified information provided by Punjab government.