Adil Najam
Here is a news item published in today’s The News (July 7, 2009, by Khalid Iqbal):
RAWALPINDI: Passengers heaved a sigh of relief when their plane from Birmingham finally landed at the Benazir Bhutto International Airport here on Monday, as they had been pestered by a number of rats who traveled with them all the way from Birmingham to Islamabad.
Dozens of big rats were present in the Boeing-777 flight No PK-792 that started its journey from Birmingham and landed here at 6:30 am on Monday. The passengers faced panic and disturbance due to the presence of the rats throughout the journey.
According to schedule, this flight, which had to leave for London at 11:30 am on Monday, could not be cleared of the rodents. The PIA management sent more than 50 mousetraps for catching the rats through its flight PK-368 from Karachi. However, the operation to catch the rats failed and the passengers of flight PK-792 took off at 2:30 pm on Monday instead of 11:30 am. The change, however, was that the passengers left on flight No PK-368 and not the original PK-792.
PIA Deputy Director Muhammad Latif admitted that big rats were present in the flight from Birmingham. He told The News that the engineering staff of the airlines succeeded in trapping the rats after a hard struggle. The big rats might have entered the plane while it was parked at the London Airport cargo centre, he added.
As the plane took off from the London airport, he said, the rats created panic and disturbance among the passengers and the plane staff informed the PIA officials about it.The passengers, who landed at the Benazir Bhutto International Airport, strongly protested against the incident.
APP: PIA Spokesman Sultan Hassan said on Monday that the Boeing 777 was grounded at the Islamabad Airport when the rats were found inside the plane. Talking to a TV channel, he said that after fumigation, the plane would be made operational.
All I can say is to repeat the famous Fifty-Fifty line: hunn kar lao gall!
P.S. See more on PIA at ATP here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
if these rats did get on the flight from Birmingham , their airport organization is to be blamed not the PIA
Might as well change the name of the country to Benazir’s Republic of Bhuttostan.
What Nonsense. I will always call it Islamabad International Airport.
Forget the Rats!!!
When on earth was Islamabad International Airport renamed to “Benazir Bhutto International Airport”???
Astagfarullah, What is Pakistan becoming…Next the country will be called Benazirs old playground!!!
Nothing agaisnt Pakistan, but this has become a joke. A laughing stock to the whole world. The world moves forward and us Pakistani’s are moving backwards.
HAHAHA, I found the comments made by readers more interesting that the post itself.
I just flew on a domestic carrier and found cats and dogs on it–though in cages! So, why should we discriminate against rats. After all, without rats and mice, mankind would not be able to conduct scientific medical experiments to cure future diseases. Perhaps this is the British Empire’s way of compensation by transferring “Rat Technology” to Pakistan in return for the “Great Theft” that colonialists have been doing for the last 300 years. Could it be that the originator of this NEWS article about “Great Rats to Fly With” really meant some passengers who are members of the House of Lords and their co-conspirator counterparts in the Pakistani Government who regularly conspire against the people of Pakistan to eat up their resources on the cheap?
-Dr.Humayun Akhtar
hyoska@mindspring.com