Pakistan International Airlines’ (PIA) Boeing 777 has been stopped from taking off at the Kuala Lumpur airport for failing to pay arrears of lease following orders from a court in Malaysia, reported 24NewsHD TV channel on Friday.

The Boeing plane of BMH registration has been stopped at Kuala Lumpur airport over the nonpayment of $14million to the lease company.

A spokesman for the PIA, however, has said that there are 167 passengers in the plane who are being looked after well and that they will fly to Pakistan on board a foreign airline on Friday night.

Terming the court orders ‘unjustified’, he said that the orders had been given in connection with a case sub judice in a UK court.

“This is an intolerable situation, and the PIA management has requested the government of Pakistan to resolve this issue through diplomatic means,” he said.

https://twitter.com/Official_PIA/status/1349985127758258176

He said the lease company has been being paid the lease amount regularly and there was a dispute regarding arrears and the issue was in a UK court but the lease company got these orders issued by a local court despite the fact that the case was currently being heard in a court in London.

He said this situation was unacceptable and the PIA has requested the government to resolve the issue through diplomatic channels.

He said they have engaged a Gulf Air flight to bring the passengers to back Pakistan that would depart at 8:00 PM and would land in Islamabad on Saturday morning.