–Qureshi says decision to stop Indian president from flying over Pakistan taken in view of New Delhi’s recent ‘behaviour’
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Saturday said it had denied India’s President Ram Nath Kovind permission to fly through its airspace – access to which is usually granted – due to New Delhi’s recent “behaviour”.
The decision comes at a time of high tension between the two nuclear-armed South Asian neighbours over Indian-occupied Kashmir.
“The decision has been taken in view of India’s behaviour,” Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said in a statement.
“The Indian president had sought permission to use Pakistan’s airspace to travel to Iceland but we decided not to permit him.”
“We have shown patience and raised the issue very cautiously but the Indian government does not change anything. It may be recalled that last month, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s plane landed in France using Pakistani airspace, which was authorised by Pakistan,” Qureshi added.
Pakistan had earlier closed its airspace to Indian traffic after aerial dogfights in February ratcheted up tensions between Islamabad and New Delhi. However, the airspace was opened recently and was also used by Indian prime minister on his visit to Paris last week, which gave way to rumours that Pakistan would ban its airspace again.
There are reports that Pakistan is mulling to impose a ban on the use of its airspace by Indian airlines. The ban on Indian flights was thoroughly debated during the cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan last month.
A final decision is yet to be taken.
In a subsequent press conference, Federal Minister for Aviation Ghulam Sarwar Khan had said that the government had so far not taken any decision to close the eastern airspace to commercial flights from India; however “we have reserved the right to do so and it would be utilised at an appropriate time”.
It merits mention here that all the governments have to follow regulations for air safety and the airspace can only be closed for any country after making a case and keeping in view all necessary legal and international aviation laws.
If shut down, this would be a second time Pakistan would close its airspace to India flights.
The airspace restrictions for Indian flights were lifted in July after months of suspension imposed in the wake of a standoff with New Delhi earlier this year.
On July 18, Aviation Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan had told a press conference that Pakistan suffered losses of more than $50 million because of airspace restrictions put in place amid violent clashes with India.
On the other hand, India’s Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri recently told parliament that Indian air firms — Air India, SpiceJet, IndiGo, and GoAir — lost almost $80m because of the closure of Pakistani airspace.
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