ISLAMABAD: An aircraft carrying Indian Prime Minister Naren­dra Modi made an unexpected 46-minute journey through Pakistani airspace on its way back from a high-profile visit to Poland, according to media reports.

The decision by the India PM to bypass the tradition of conveying a goodwill message while flying over Pakistan sparked conversations about the strained relations between the two neighbouring countries.

Talking to Dawn, a source from the aviation industry, however, said a message of goodwill was a tradition, not a compulsion. “Plus, it could land Narendra Modi into trouble with his critics in India as soon as he would touch down,” the source said.

Nonetheless, some media reports quoted Civil Aviation Authority sources as saying that the Indian plane ent­e­red Pakistan from Chi­tral and flew over Islam­abad and Lahore before entering Amritsar.

According to the source in the aviation sector, Pakistani airspace was open to commercial Indian air traffic.

“The Prime Minister’s aircraft does not need special consent to fly over a country and has blanket permission. In some cases, the PM’s aircraft is allocated a call sign, the same way an aircraft carrying heads of state from Pakistan, are allocated call signs such as ‘Pakistan 1’,” the source said.

Pakistan fully closed its airspace after Feb 26, 2019, following the violation of its international boundary and airspace by Indian fighter jets. Later in March, it partially opened its airspace but kept it banned for Indian flights.

However, Pakistan refused a request from PM Modi the same year to use its airspace for a flight to Germany amid heightened tensions over the Kashmir dispute. Two years later, however, Pakistan did grant permission for the Indian premier’s non-stop flight to traverse its airspace enroute to the US.

Published in Dawn, August 25th, 2024