Pakistan International Airline’s suspended CEO, Mr. Bernd Hildenbrand has been allowed to fly back home to Germany, we have checked with sources.
Mr. Hildenbrand was under investigation — with corruption charges worth billions of rupees — and was facing forced leave from his position.
Mr. Hildenbrand was allowed to leave Pakistan as a one time thing for thirty days only, our sources confirmed. However, it is unclear if he will ever come back to face investigation or not.
Sources further said that former CEO — who was on exit control list — was allowed to leave Pakistan after diplomatic pressure.
Corruption cases, worth billion of rupees, that were under investigation, have been put on halt with his departure of the country,
The documents obtained by ProPakistani clearly showed that Minister of Interior issued a memorandum no 12/36/2017-ECL on May, 4, 2017 to allow Bernd Hildenbrand for traveling abroad.
“It has been decided to allow one-time permission to Mr Bernd Eugen Hildenbrand Deutsch national of passport number C8W917M2F, to travel abroad for a period of 30 days from date of departure,” the memorandum said.
After issuance of this memorandum Bernd Hildenbrand today (May, 6, 2017) caught an available flight of Turkish Airline for Frankfurt (Germany) Via Istanbul.
A source in Federal Investigative Agency (FIA) told ProPakistani that the name of Bernd Hildenbrand name has not been removed from Exit Control List (ECL) but he was only allowed to travel outside Pakistan for 30 days by Minister of Interior.
According to the sources, the Acting CEO and COO gave full assurances to relevant authorities that Mr. Hildenbrand will come back and face the investigation in corruption cases duly.
It must be mentioned here that even Pakistani nationals leave the country during trials and they never come back. “How could you expect a German national to come back and face investigation?”, questioned a FIA official when we asked about when agency is going to re-start the cases.
Bernd Hildenbrand was appointed as PIA Chief Operating Officer. Later, he was given the charge of acting Chief Executive Officer. During his tenure, PIA losses increased from Rs 2 billion per month to Rs 3.25 billion per month.
The FIA opened an investigation against Hildenbrand for leasing aircraft at inflated rates and for selling a PIA airworthy aircraft Airbus A310 to a German museum (for just Rs. 56 lacs) in violation of rules and regulations.
“With the departure of Bernd Hildenbrand, the investigation of corruption was put on halt and nothing can be proved without his interrogation,” a FIA officer said.