LAHORE: Explaining the reasons for not allowing the publication of speeches made by the Opposition leaders on the first day of the National Conference in Lahore through a Press statement (partly covered in Thursday’s [Feb 10] issue of “Dawn”), Mr Ghulam Nabi Memon, West Pakistan Law and Information Minister [said]: “The Government could have conveniently banned the very delivery of those speeches; it could have legally restrained the speakers from attempting them; it could have stopped the very holding of the conference; it could have detained its organisers; it could have arrested and put on trial at least the persons who had produced this dangerous literature”, if the Government had been what the speakers thought it was ....

But it had not done so although “these speeches violated at least one dozen provisions of law,” he added.

Besides, Mr Memon said: “If we were to put the legal machinery into motion; the Opposition will have been deprived of the services of those leaders for quite a number of years.”

Besides, he said, Lahore was beyond doubt a sensitive area, it had just seen war and was the scene of violent demonstrations and close to it were the war-ravaged areas and borders.

[Meanwhile, as reported from Dacca,] a PIA Boeing jet airliner today [Feb 10] reached Dacca from Karachi, overflying Indian territory, in two hours 45 minutes. This was the first PIA flight to overfly India after the resumption of overflying rights to each other’s country. Flights over India remained suspended for 156 days.

The plane of the first flight from Karachi touched down at Tejgaon Airport at 1-15 p.m., exactly after two hours and 45 minutes. PIA also resumed its service to Lahore today.

Meanwhile, All-India Radio announced today that the Indian Airlines Corporation had also resumed overflying Pakistan territory.

Published in Dawn, February 11th, 2016