RAWALPINDI: A flight attendant for Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) was placed on judicial detention after being discovered smuggling foreign currency at Allama Iqbal International Airport in Lahore.
On Saturday, the suspect was presented to a magistrate by customs authorities who requested her arrest.
Authorities from Customs say the flight hostess was held on Friday after a body search turned up a significant sum of Saudi riyals in her socks. On social media, a video of the cabin crew member removing the cash notes has also gone viral.
Afterwards, the air hostess—who was only identified by her initials, A.Q.—was the subject of a formal complaint. The allegation states that the suspect, a Vehari resident, was detained by customs officers at the airport when she boarded PIA aircraft PK 203 from Lahore to Dubai.
The deputy collector for customs at Allama Iqbal International Airport, Raja Bilal Naseem, informed Dawn that during the search, 140,000 Saudi Riyals, or roughly 10.4 million rupees, were found in her hands.
He claimed that intelligence reports about a potential effort to smuggle funds through this flight had been received by Customs authorities.
The suspect has been charged with smuggling charges under Section 139 of The Customs Act, 1969, which prohibits any passenger or crew member from trying to remove cash, gold, precious metals, or stones by hiding them in luggage in order to escape customs.
According to a PIA representative, the air hostess would be fired right away following the trial if she was found guilty.
