By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: The Punjab provincial government will pursue legal action against individuals and platforms it accuses of waging a “deliberate malicious campaign” of lies about the use of its newly acquired official aircraft, Senior Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb said on Sunday.
In a post on X, Aurangzeb said the government had decided to file cases under Pakistan’s Defamation Law 2024 against “every individual and platform” involved in what she described as fabricated stories surrounding the Gulfstream business jet. The aircraft, purchased for Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz’s use, has become a lightning rod for opposition criticism in a province where millions live below the poverty line.
“Disinformation will no longer go unanswered,” Aurangzeb wrote. “Those who think they can malign institutions and mislead the public without consequence should prepare to face the law.” She added that the provincial administration would seek the maximum penalty available “to ensure a clear and unequivocal message” that “fake news is not journalism but defamation.”
The blunt warning marked the latest escalation in a month-long controversy that began when the Punjab government quietly acquired the seven-year-old Gulfstream G500, bearing U.S. registration N144S and estimated to cost around 10 billion rupees — roughly $38 million to $42 million. Aviation sources told local media the jet arrived in Lahore on Dec. 28 after a transatlantic journey that included stops in Bangor, Maine, and Hurghada, Egypt. It sat parked at Allama Iqbal International Airport for roughly 40 days while undergoing interior refurbishment before taking its first domestic flight on Feb. 6, from Lahore to Multan. Since then it has operated several trips under the call sign “PUNJAB2” to cities including Quetta, Mianwali, Sialkot and Rawalpindi.
Social media speculation intensified recently with unverified claims that Nawaz’s son, Junaid Safdar, had used the aircraft for personal travel to Europe. Aurangzeb, a close ally of the chief minister, labeled those assertions — and broader accusations that the jet serves as a personal luxury for the Sharif family — as the work of “known pathological liars and peddlers of fake news.” She has previously accused activists from the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) of orchestrating a coordinated vilification drive against Nawaz over the purchase.
The PTI has repeatedly argued that spending billions of rupees on a VIP aircraft is indefensible when large segments of Punjab’s population struggle with basic needs. Jamaat-i-Islami Emir Hafiz Naeemur Rehman sharpened the critique last month, noting the irony that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif — Maryam Nawaz’s uncle — had celebrated the privatization of the loss-making national carrier Pakistan International Airlines while his niece acquired a high-end jet “for elite travel.”
For weeks the Punjab administration offered little public explanation. Officials initially described the acquisition as part of a broader “Air Punjab” initiative to build a provincial airline fleet through a mix of purchases and leases. Punjab Information Minister Azma Bokhari later pushed back against personal-use allegations, insisting the Gulfstream was intended for official government operations under that umbrella project. When pressed on the absence of a detailed roadmap, the government shifted emphasis: the previous aircraft assigned to the chief minister had grown too old and required replacement for safety reasons.
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