Islamabad, Oct 01: Pakistan today said no decision has been taken with regard to opening of its airspace to Indian flights before the Saarc summit in January. "No decision has been taken in this regard," foreign office spokesman Masood Khan said here reacting to reports in the media here that Pakistan might open its airspace before the summit in view of the mounting pressure from the international community.
Khan said he has cross-checked with the defence ministry officials, who denied any such plans.
A local daily had quoted defence ministry officials as saying that an announcement to open the airspace before January 2004 was highly likely in view of pressure from the international community to restore airlinks with India. Air traffic between Pakistan and India came to a halt in December 2001, after New Delhi withdrew air facilities for Pakistani aircraft following the attack on Parliament.
Pakistan, in a reciprocal move banned the Indian aircraft from using its airspace. Though the two countries in the recent months restored bus services, talks on airlinks were stalled as Pakistan insisted on guarantees from India that it would not ban the over-flights in future. The first round of talks held in August failed due to Islamabad's insistence of guarantees.
The newspaper said that Pakistan was not willing to lift the ban on the over-flights in order to stop the "growing Indian influence" in Afghanistan. Bureau Report