Just when he was winning plaudits for the austerity drive, a number of news reports said Pakistan’s newly elected Prime Minister Imran Khan is using a helicopter to commute to his workplace. Khan, who pledges to build a ‘new Pakistan’, took a helicopter to his office. As the news spread, opponents questioned as to how it complements the prime minister’s promise of ending the VIP culture prevalent in Pakistan’s top brass.

As Khan drew flak, one of his minister, Fawad Chaudry, in-charge of country’s Information and Broadcasting Minister department, said that the cost of the helicopter travel is Rs 50-Rs 55 and then added that he sourced his information “from Google”. Chaudhary’s claim sent twitter into a frenzy.

Soon, Khan and his minister became a laughing stock on Twitter.

Sadia Shaukat, a Twitter user commented, “#helicopter So now helicopter is cheaper then careem and uber then govt should start helicopter service for all peoples so they can save more money.”

“That Rs 55 per Km #Helicopter is expensive AF, @ImranKhanPTI must get this dude aboard, give him #Transport ministry or something and use this for 70 km in one litre.
#CD70 #MadniTyara #Pakistan #PTI #ImranKhan #Heli #Banigala (sic),” Faraz Chaudhary tweeted.

Mudabbir Pathan, a twitter user, predicted how Chaudry would have searched about Khan’s expenses. “This is how @fawadchaudhry searches google for the helicopter expenses on google ???? #helicopter #ImranKhan @PTIofficial,” Pathan tweeted.

This is how @fawadchaudhry searches google for the helicopter expenses on google ????#helicopter #ImranKhan @PTIofficial pic.twitter.com/NLQpqioHEa

— Mudabbir Pathan (@MudabbirPathan1) August 28, 2018

Roman Khan Wazir, another Twitter user, posted a picture predicting how Rs 55 helicopter would have looked like, “Will be best if they start this model from Bhara Kahu to Abpara.”

The news of Khan commuting with a helicopter came in backdrop of Pakistan government’s decision go ahead with the sale of luxury surplus vehicles of the prime minister house under the austerity drive of the new government.

The government has said to have prepared a list of the luxury vehicles to be sold during an auction set for September 17 at the Prime Minister House. As per a Dawn report, the fleet of luxury vehicles includes eight BMWs, three cars of 2014 model, three 5000cc SUVs and two 3000cc SUVs of 2016 model. The other cars include four Mercedes Benz cars of 2016 model, with two of them being 4,000cc bullet-proof vehicles.