Pakistan on Saturday turned down an Indian request to allow its president to use the country's airspace for his flight to Iceland. In a statement which was televised on the sate-run PTV, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmooad Qureshi announced the decision after Prime Minister Imran Khan's approval.
"Today, we have taken a decision and declined a request from Indian government to allow our air space to its president's flight for his tour to Iceland," Qureshi said, adding the decision was taken in view of India's continued stubbornness to normalize situation in occupied Jammu and Kashmir. He said the Prime Minister approved the decision after due consultations. Indian President Ram Nath Kovind is scheduled to undertake a tour of Iceland, Switzerland and Slovenia from September 9 to 17.
Qureshi further said Pakistan had exercised utmost restraint but India was not ready to shun its inflexibility and sticking to the policy of oppression by putting in place an indefinite curfew in occupied Jammu and Kashmir. The foreign minister said he would be visiting Geneva to attend the Human Rights Council meeting where he would apprise its members of the blatant and grave human rights situation in the occupied valley.
Meanwhile, in a statement Minister for Aviation Ghulam Sarwar Khan stated that an option was under consideration to completely close Pakistan's airspace to all Indian flights. "We are reviewing a proposal to close our airspace to all Indian flights. If India doesn't refrain from its deeds, the option is at hand," the minister said. He said India had forwarded a request to allow Pakistani airspace for its president. "But we conveyed [to India] that Indian president's flight will neither use Pakistan's airspace for departure nor for arrival," Khan said.
Comments
Comments are closed.