The PIA Flight 688 had crashed on July 10, 2006, at 12 noon, minutes after taking off from Multan Airport for Lahore. The plane had reportedly suffered engine problems and hit an electric power line before crashing in a nearby field. The plane had broken up and caught fire. It was 160th loss of a Fokker F-27 in the world, 9th worst accident involving a Fokker F-27 in terms of life loss and 3rd worst accident in Pakistan aviation at that time.
The then government of Pervez Musharraf had ordered an inquiry into the incident and the political parties had raised a lot of hue and cry demanding punishment to the persons responsible for the plane crash. The Pakistan People Party (PPP), which was in opposition at that time, had even gone to the extent of pinpointing the culprits and vowing to bring them to the court of justice.
When PPP was in power, but, like many other forgotten promises, this too had not been fulfilled. After the 2008 2013 and 2018 elections, the crash victims relatives expected that justice would be dispensed as the cream of the country including renowned neuro-surgeon Prof Dr. Iftikhar Ali Raja two high court judges, Justice Nazir Siddiqi and Justice Muhammad Nawaz Bhatti, BZU Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Naseer Ahmed Khan, Brig Farhat Aftab, Brig Aftab Ahmed, Captain Naveed Tariq, advocate Mian Arshad Latif, PIA Delhi Station Manager Ijaz Ahmed Chattha, Deputy Attorney-General Suhail Akhtar, PIA officer Salim Shah and his wife.
The kin of victims wrote many letters to the PM to bring to justice the culprits behind the tragic incident and some of them even went to top government functionaries after the elections. Two high court judges, two brigadiers of the Pakistan Army and the best neurosurgeon of the country were among the crash victims.
