KP raises temperature with sustained salvo at Punjab govt over plane controversy

The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government on Thursday raised doubts over the alleged purchase of a 19-seat luxury aircraft, which the Punjab government plans to include in its proposed new airline.

The Punjab government’s apparent acquisition of a high-end Gulfstream executive jet has come under scrutiny after an official job advertisement seeking a pilot specifically trained on the plane appeared, offering rare confirmation of a major purchase that authorities have not publicly acknowledged. Open source aviation monitoring and publications by strategic affairs observers indicate that the provincial government acquired a Gulfstream GVII-G500 manufactured in 2019, a long-range luxury aircraft often used by heads of state and corporate executives.

The aircraft, bearing manufacturer serial number 72022 and previously registered in the United States as N144S, has been observed operating VIP flights to Punjab in recent days. Punjab Information Minister Azma Bokhari said a day ago that he was posted to Air Punjab. Former PML-N stalwarts Miftah Ismail and Mohammad Zubair had also criticized the plane.

In a post today on

Ismail also piled on criticism today.

As public attention increasingly focuses on state spending and accountability, analysts say the episode highlights a familiar pattern: Major decisions involving VIP privileges are made public only through fragments (flight data, job ads and open-source intelligence) rather than formal disclosure.