ISLAMABAD: A parliamentarian committee on Wednesday expressed apprehensions about giving a flightworthy Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) aircraft to a German museum, and asked the PIA to submit a thorough report on the matter.

Senators who met to discuss the performance of the national flag carrier described the deal to sell an Airbus A-310 to the museum as suspect.

The meeting began on a sour note, when the Senate committee noted the absence of senior PIA officials at the meeting.

The chairman of the Senate Committee on Performance of PIA, PML-N Senator Mushahidullah Khan, said: `We need answers on this irregular deal. We will move a privilege motion if the top PIA officials are absent at thenext meeting.

The committee members observed that the aircraft has already landed with a museum in Leipzig, Germany, and senators said permission was not sought to sell the flight-worthy airplane, no agreements were signed and the PIA did not receive any advance payment for the sale of the A-310.

`Everything is wrong with this arrangement, especially when such a deal has not been sanctioned,` Mr Khan added.

He said the PIA officials present at the meeting had failed to give satisfactory answers on the deal.

The museum in question expressed interest in acquiring the A-130 last year, to induct it among its collection of international airlines` aircrafts. The same airplane was also flown to Malta, where it was hired for a shot in a movie.

`A movie should be made on this deal, and how an aircraftdisappeared from a nuclear powered state and ended up in a museum,` quipped Senator retired Col Syed Tahir Hussain Mashhadi from the Muttahida Qaumi Movement.

The committee members also asked why a fully functional aircraft was given to the museum when it had only wanted to acquire the structure.

`Why were the parts, which could fetch more funds, not sold in the open market,` Mr Mashhadi asked while urging the PIA`s senior management to explain their actions.

Officials from the PIA responded that the aircraf t was sold to the museum on the directions of the senior management for a little over $5 million.

Describing such deals as `unheard of`, Mr Khan directed the PIA officials present for a report on the details of the arrangements.