Pakistan, April 19 -- The Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) recovered a long-standing penalty of Rs10 million from the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), originally imposed in 2009 for "abusing its dominant position by excessively increasing Haj fares in 2008", according to a CCP statement on Friday.

The development comes a day after Pakistan government announced to seek expressions of interest (EOI) next week for the sale of the national carrier.

"The penalty was imposed after the CCP conducted an inquiry based on media reports alleging that PIA had charged exorbitant Haj fares.

The inquiry revealed that the national carrier had unreasonably increased Haj fares by more than 80%-from Rs38,500 to Rs70,000 for the southern reg...