LAHORE: Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz, on October 2, defended her use of the provincial government’s recently acquired Gulfstream G500 luxury jet during a speech in Lahore.
“I cannot travel on a motorbike [in the province],” she said. “My aircraft is worth Rs10 billion or Rs11 billion. Other provinces have acquired helicopters worth Rs16 billion, but nobody talks about them.”
Her claim raises a question: have other provincial governments bought helicopters worth Rs16 billion? An examination of aircraft owned by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and Sindh, based on interviews with aviation experts and provincial officials, found no evidence to support the claim that these helicopters are worth Rs16 billion.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa currently has one operational helicopter, a single-engine Eurocopter Écureuil purchased in 2010, according to a provincial official who requested anonymity. Imran Aslam Khan, the founder of the Aircraft Owners and Operators Association, a representative body for the aviation industry, told The News that the provincial government had historically used two helicopters to transport the governor, chief minister and cabinet members — a Eurocopter and a Russian-made Mi-171E. The Mi-171E crashed on August 15, 2025, while supporting flood-relief operations in the province.
Khan estimated the remaining Eurocopter’s current market value at about Rs499 million to Rs554 million ($1.8 million to $2 million) at an exchange rate of Rs277 to the dollar. A second aviation expert familiar with the provincial fleet offered a broader estimate of Rs277 million to Rs554 million ($1 million to $2 million). Neither valuation comes close to Rs16 billion.
Balochistan has one Russian-made Mi-171 helicopter, which the provincial government purchased under a contract concluded in January 2017, as per officials. The helicopter was originally bought for approximately Rs4.21 billion ($15.2 million). Khan estimated its current market value at about Rs1.662 billion ($6 million). Captain Ali Azad, the director general of Balochistan’s Aviation Wing, provided The News with the same estimate.
Sindh’s helicopter fleet comprises two aircraft, both acquired in 1992 — a Bell 412HP and a Bell 206L-3.
According to Khan, only the Bell 412HP is currently operational. The helicopter was manufactured in 1991 and first registered in the United States in December of that year before being exported to Pakistan. A new Bell 412HP costs approximately Rs2.77 billion to Rs3.047 billion ($10 million to $11 million), Khan estimated. He placed the current market value of Sindh’s much older aircraft at Rs415.5 million to Rs969.5 million ($1.5 million to $3.5 million), depending on the remaining service life of its components and the completeness of its maintenance records.
The other helicopter, Bell 206L-3, is grounded. It was also purchased in 1992 as part of a package deal. Khan estimated that an aircraft of this type today could be worth Rs138.5 million to Rs207.75 million ($500,000 to $750,000).
The estimates provided by the aviation experts do not support the claim that the helicopters examined in this report are currently worth Rs16 billion. Their estimated market values range around Rs138.5 million to Rs1.662 billion.
It remains unclear which helicopter or helicopters the Punjab chief minister was referring to when she made her claim. The News tried to seek clarification from Zeeshan Malik, special assistant to the Punjab chief minister on political affairs, and Punjab Information Minister Azma Zahid Bokhari, but they did not reply to repeated requests for comments.
Originally published in The News
