June 19, 2003	Thursday	Rabi-us-Sani 18, 1424

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RAWALPINDI, June 18: Overflight sanctions on Indian carriers were hurting Pakistan more, Civil Aviation Authority Director-General Air Marshal Salim Arshad (retired) said here on Wednesday.

Briefing the press on civil aviation at the Islamabad Airport, he said the decision regarding the opening of the airspace was a political matter.

The CAA chief said till now no specific efforts were being made for the opening of the airspace.

National flag carrier Pakistan International Airlines, he said, was more comfortably positioned over the issue of closing operations to India or not flying through its space, but the matter was more perplexing for the CAA because of the large number of Indian flights that had been using Pakistan space.

India had imposed sanctions on PIA on overflying its territory on Dec 27, 2002. The ban was reciprocated by the Pakistan government. India withdrew the sanctions on June 10, 2003, but Pakistan is yet to respond and hence the sanctions effectively remain in place.

Pakistan had rejected Indian move of lifting airspace restrictions as “self-serving” and “cosmetic”. India used Pakistani airspace for more than 112 flights a week. India’s flights to the West were more affected by the ban.

Air Marshal Arshad, speaking on the status of aviation sector in the country, said the state of civil aviation was not good. He said though PIA had shown some improvement, yet it had a long way to come.