ISLAMABAD:
After taking oath, one of the first decisions by Bangladesh’s newly elected prime minister was to forgo the official motorcade entitled to him as the country’s chief executive.
Tarique Rahman opted to use his personal vehicle, his own driver and even declined official accommodation.
The move, however, received little traction in Pakistan.
Instead, public debate has centered on the Punjab government’s decision to acquire a luxury jet while extending a range of new perks to senior bureaucrats, a contrast that has not gone unnoticed.
The aircraft in question, a Gulfstream G500 bearing registration N144S, arrived in Lahore from North America in December 2025 and began local flight operations on February 6, 2026.
The purchase has triggered significant public and political backlash both within Pakistan and abroad.
Questions are being raised about how a country facing an 11-year high poverty rate of 29 per cent could afford a jet costing more than Rs10 billion.
In an attempt to justify the purchase, Punjab Information Minister Azma Bukhari linked it to the upcoming regional airline, Air Punjab, scheduled to launch in April, claiming the jet would be part of a larger fleet.
Aviation experts, however, quickly challenged this explanation, pointing out that Gulfstream jets are state aircraft and cannot be used for commercial operations, making the justification questionable.
Responding to widespread criticism, Abid Sher Ali, a senator from Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), said the aircraft belonged to the Punjab government and that its replacement was justified, given that the previous jet was more than 25 years old.
He argued that Punjab had sufficient resources and that critics should focus on larger national challenges rather than the aircraft controversy.
Meanwhile, Syed Kousar Kazmi, spokesperson for Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif, rejected claims that the purchase represented personal luxury.
He stated that the aircraft was a provincial asset intended for official use by current and future chief ministers.
Addressing the Air Punjab explanation, he added that if Minister Bukhari had described the plane as part of the airline plan, “then that was incorrect”.
Critics contend that the purchase raises serious questions about priorities, particularly as Punjab publicly advocates austerity while its poverty rate has surged.
A preliminary report for FY 2024-25 shows that poverty in Punjab rose from 16.5% to 23.3% over seven years – an increase of 41%.
The government has also come under scrutiny for its revised transport policy, which grants senior bureaucrats, including the Chief Secretary and Inspector General of Police (IGP) Punjab, three official vehicles each, two of them in the luxury category, along with unlimited petrol for the largest vehicle.
Critics argue that such perks, at a time of soaring poverty and inflation, reflect misplaced priorities.
Legal and fiscal experts have questioned whether the jet purchase complied with constitutional requirements.
Under Pakistan’s constitution, all expenditures from the treasury must be included in the provincial budget and approved by the assembly.
Major or extraordinary spending requires prior legislative approval supported by full justification.
“The Constitution requires that all expenditures from the treasury should be allocated in the budget and each item should be debated. Unfortunately, no one in the media is highlighting violations of the Constitution in such expenses,” economic and tax expert Ikramul Haq told The Express Tribune.
