Flutter contact permission crashes on IOS

Question

I am using permission_handler package to get the permission to access the contacts but as irequest the permission to access contacts my app crashes on IOS. Crash only happens when i run the app in release mode flutter run --release. Other permission like notifications and camera are working fine

  final status = await Permission.contacts.status;

    try {
      if (status.isDenied || status.isPermanentlyDenied) {
        await Permission.contacts.request();
      }
    } catch (e) {
      print('e ${e.toString()}');
    }

and Info.plist contains valid entries

<key>NSContactsUsageDescription</key>
<string>Granting access will allow you to see your contacts</string>

with a Podfile

post_install do |installer|
  installer.pods_project.targets.each do |target|
    flutter_additional_ios_build_settings(target)

    target.build_configurations.each do |config|
      # You can remove unused permissions here
      # for more infomation: https://github.com/BaseflowIT/flutter-permission-handler/blob/master/permission_handler/ios/Classes/PermissionHandlerEnums.h
      # e.g. when you don't need camera permission, just add 'PERMISSION_CAMERA=0'
   

      config.build_settings['GCC_PREPROCESSOR_DEFINITIONS'] ||= [
        '$(inherited)',

        ## dart: PermissionGroup.calendar
        'PERMISSION_EVENTS=0',

        ## dart: PermissionGroup.reminders
        'PERMISSION_REMINDERS=0',

        ## dart: PermissionGroup.contacts
        'PERMISSION_CONTACTS=1',

        ## dart: PermissionGroup.camera
        'PERMISSION_CAMERA=1',

        ## dart: PermissionGroup.microphone
        'PERMISSION_MICROPHONE=1',

        ## dart: PermissionGroup.speech
        'PERMISSION_SPEECH_RECOGNIZER=0',

        ## dart: PermissionGroup.photos
        'PERMISSION_PHOTOS=1',

        ## dart: [PermissionGroup.location, PermissionGroup.locationAlways, PermissionGroup.locationWhenInUse]
        'PERMISSION_LOCATION=1',
       
        ## dart: PermissionGroup.notification
        'PERMISSION_NOTIFICATIONS=1',

        ## dart: PermissionGroup.mediaLibrary
        'PERMISSION_MEDIA_LIBRARY=0',

        ## dart: PermissionGroup.sensors
        'PERMISSION_SENSORS=0',

        ## dart: PermissionGroup.bluetooth
        'PERMISSION_BLUETOOTH=1',

        ## dart: PermissionGroup.appTrackingTransparency
        'PERMISSION_APP_TRACKING_TRANSPARENCY=0',

        ## dart: PermissionGroup.criticalAlerts
        'PERMISSION_CRITICAL_ALERTS=0',
      ]

    end
  end
end