Judicial panel to probe Pak plane crash that killed 127

Pakistan on Saturday set up a judicial commission to probe the crash of a private passenger plane that killed 127 people and took the owner of the airline into "protective" custody.

Announcing the formation of the judicial commission, Premier Yousuf Raza Gilani said that without investigation no conclusion can be reached about the last evening crash of Boeing 737-200 plane of Bhoja Air.

Gilani, who visited the state-run PIMS hospital in Islamabad where badly mutilated bodies of the victims including women and children had been shifted, told reporters that many of the bodies had been handed over to the next of kin after identification while the remaining would be given after the DNA tests which may take some time.

The Prime Minister described as big tragedy the crash of the private airliner, which was second major air disaster in the vicinity of the Pakistani capital since 28th July 2010, when an Air Blue plane slammed into the Margalla Hills in cloudy weather killing all 152 people on board.

His comments came as Farooq Bhoja, a member of the family that owns Bhoja Air was taken into "protective custody" and barred from leaving the country, with authorities including his name on the "Exit Control List".

The plane had crashed at 6.30 pm last evening just before it was to land at the international airport, Islamabad.

It slammed into the ground at Hussainabad village, located less than 10 km from the airport, amidst bad weather.

An FIR had been registered and the investigation would determine whether the aircraft that crashed was "technically capable," Interior Minister Rehman Malik said.