‘Chopper ride cheaper than car’: Pakistan PM Imran Khan’s air commute draws ridicule

Agencies

September 18, 2018

Islamabad, Sept 18: Even as the Pakistan government is trying to generate revenue through means such as auctioning luxury cars, prime minister Imran Khan has been mocked for taking a helicopter into Islamabad most days, after declaring he would eschew luxury perks.

Information Minister Chaudhry argued that the helicopter uses less fuel than a motorcade, saying at one point it cost only 50 rupees (40 cents) per kilometre.

That calculation provoked ridicule.

“Why don’t you stop metro bus service and instead let people enjoy the cheap helicopter rides?” quipped a TV host.

In fact, Khan’s helicopter costs about 200,000 rupees ($1,633) per hour factoring in fuel, crew, maintenance and inspections, Syed Naseem Ahmad, president of the Society of Air Safety Investigation Pakistan said.

Khan has promised to cut costs, including trimming motorcades of government officials and selling public land.

“It is a change of mindset,” he said in a speech on Friday. “I will be counting every single rupee I have to spend on me.”

Khan’s campaign, however, has been somewhat undercut by his near-daily helicopter commute from his home in the hills surrounding Islamabad.

Optics aside, analysts say Pakistan will have to take more painful policy cuts in government spending to truly reduce the deficit. The new government on Monday did raise gas prices by 10 to 20 percent.

The luxury cars’ auction on Monday raised about 200 million rupees ($1.6 million), government official Mohammad Asif told local Geo TV. That is just one-tenth of the amount he had predicted, and only 61 of just over 100 vehicles were sold.

The event had been billed as part of Khan’s drive to give “the nation’s wealth to its rightful owners”. Critics say most of the measures so far are more symbolism than significant savings.

Critics say the cost-cutting so far has been mostly cosmetic. “There is nothing new in the current austerity drive,” said political commentator Raza Rumi.

Auctions of ageing government vehicles, for example, have taken place for years, with less publicity.

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Explosive new Epstein files reveal Donald Trump raped 13-year-old girl, murdered newborn

News Network

January 31,2026

The US Department of Justice has released millions of new documents linked to the case of convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, before removing some pages that contained complaints mentioning President Donald Trump.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said on Friday that approximately 3.5 million files were published to comply with the Epstein Transparency Act, following criticism that the administration had missed a December 19 deadline set by Congress.

The documents include FBI communications and complaints submitted as tips, some of which list comments mentioning Trump and others who had social or professional ties to Epstein.

Trump has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing in relation to his past association with Epstein.

Pages removed from DOJ website

After their publication, pages containing complaints that mentioned Trump were removed from the DOJ website and now return a “page not found” message. Copies of the documents, however, have circulated widely on social media. CNN anchor Jake Tapper was among those who publicly noted that the pages had been taken down.

One complaint, filed by a friend of a victim, says Trump forced a girl aged 13–14 to perform “oral sex” approximately 35 years ago in New Jersey. The document states that an investigator was sent to Washington to conduct an interview.

Another complaint says Trump regularly paid an individual to perform sexual acts and adds that he was present when her newborn child was murdered by a relative. The paperwork notes that there was “no contact made” with the complainant.

A separate complaint, which provided no contact information, said “calendar girls” parties at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago involved children and sexual abuse. The document also names several public figures as present at such events.

In another account, a complainant said they witnessed a “sex trafficking ring” at Trump National Golf Club in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, in the mid-1990s. The person noted “threats” from Trump’s head of security if she spoke publicly about what she had seen.

Other figures mentioned in the files

The latest release also includes a draft email Epstein wrote to himself in 2013, referring to Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. In the message, Epstein said Gates asked him to delete emails and referenced “personal matters.”

The DOJ has not provided a detailed explanation for why certain pages were removed after publication. The department said the document release was ongoing.

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