ISLAMABAD, June 10: Pakistan took note of India’s official announcement on Monday that Delhi had lifted ban on Pakistani flights across the Indian airspace, but stated a lot more remains to be done.
In a statement issued immediately after the Indian announcement, the foreign office spokesman, Aziz Ahmad Khan, said the Indian decision about the overflights’ ban was an act in desirable direction but obviously, he emphasized, a lot more remains to be done.
India had imposed the ban on Pakistani airlines operation to and across the country about five months ago and gradually escalated the action against communication by snapping the rail and road transport links between the two countries.
Monday’s announcement relates to only overflights, apparently leaving the ban in place on rail and road communications as well as on PIA flights between the two countries.
The Indian announcement said it had reopened its airspace to Pakistan flights bound for third countries. Also, New Delhi had downgraded its diplomatic representation by recalling earlier this year its high commissioner from Islamabad and then months later, demanded that Pakistan should recall its high commissioner, Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, from New Delhi since Pakistan had refused to take retaliatory action on the plea that in such critical relations both sides should have retained their diplomatic relations at top level.
