Giving consent to India’s request, Pakistan has permitted Indian PM Narendra Modi’s aircraft to fly over its airspace to Bishkek where he’s scheduled to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit this week.
India had requested Pakistan to allow PM Modi’s aircraft to use its airspace to fly to Kyrgyzstan for the SCO summit taking place on June 13-14. Pakistan’s PM Imran Khan is also expected to attend the meeting and this step is being seen as an offer for peace dialogue expecting India to respond to the same.
Pakistan had completely restricted usage of its airspace for Indian Airlines on February 26th following the air strike by Indian Air Force on Jaish-e-Mohammed’s terror camp in Balakot. Only 2 out of 11 routes have been kept open for use and both passing through Southern Pakistan.
Although there isn’t any meeting arranged for both the PM’s on the sidelines of the SCO summit but Pakistan remains hopeful that India will respond positively to its peace offer.
Restrictions on usage of airspace by Pakistan has affected several international operations of Indian Airlines like Air India and IndiGo among the others.
India’s largest domestic passenger airline IndiGo hasn’t been able to commence direct flights from Delhi to Istanbul due to the ongoing ban on Pakistani airspace.
