Pakistan proposed PIA flights to India for religious pilgrimage: report

ISLAMABAD/NEW DELHI: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Member of National Assembly (MNA) Ramesh Vankwani has reportedly proposed to commence Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flights to India for religious pilgrimage, an Indian daily reported.

Pakistan Hindu Council forwarded a proposal to India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) through the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi to allow Hindu, Muslim and Sikh pilgrims to travel by air.

The PHC sought permission from the Indian government to allow two chartered flights of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) carrying pilgrims to be allowed to fly from Lahore and Karachi to destinations in India this Saturday, The Hindu reported.

The proposal was sent despite a complete standstill in trade and travel between India and Pakistan after the Pakistani government took a number of retaliatory actions to protest New Delhi’s amendment of Article 370 and other measures in occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

According to the report, the proposal was to Indian MEA from the Pakistan High Commission in Delhi on behalf of the Pakistan Hindu Council (PHC) chief patron and a PTI MNA Ramesh Vankwani.

The English daily quoted sources as saying that the proposal, which was only received on Monday, had still to receive many clearances in New Delhi. The MEA did not respond to enquiries about whether permissions were likely within the next few days, or at all.

A senior official of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) also said that “no request has been received from the airline at present.”

Officials also pointed to the fact that Pakistan denied overflight permission to Srinagar-Sharjah flights that began in November last year, and India refused to allow PIA flights to take Indian pilgrims to Pakistan in December, to stress that the proposal would need a political push on both sides.

If clearances are received, this would be the first PIA flight to travel to India since operations were suspended in 2019, and the first-ever such flight carrying pilgrims from either side since 1947.

At present, groups of Indian and Pakistani pilgrims, who still visit each other’s countries under a 1974 protocol exchange agreement, travel by road over the Wagah/Atari border.

In all about 170 pilgrims, mostly Muslim, and about 20 Hindu pilgrims would be facilitated by the PHC, which signed an MoU with PIA in December 2021 to organise a number of “faith tourism initiatives”.

Amongst the early initiatives, the PHC said it had facilitated two groups of Hindu pilgrims from UK, UAE, Spain and other countries in the past few weeks, who were flown to Peshawar via PIA charters in order to visit the “ShriParamhansMaharajMandir” in the remote Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) district of Teri.

The Indian pilgrims crossed over Wagah by foot and then flew to Peshawar from Lahore.

MNA Ramesh Vankwani told the Indian newspaper via telephone that he is ‘very hopeful we can conduct this reciprocal visit by air for Pakistanis wishing to travel to the Ajmer Sharif, Nizamuddin Auliya Dargah and other shrines, and take the first such flight myself.’

He said he had received many enquiries from pilgrims eager to take the chartered flights.

According to the programme drawn up, the pilgrims would take a four-day tour to India, from January 29-February 1, including visits to Jaipur, Ajmer, Delhi, Agra and Haridwar.

The PTI lawmaker said that he had discussed with Pakistani officials, the possibility of allowing Air India flights from India to travel to Pakistan. If permitted by both sides, these flights would carry Indian Hindu pilgrims to Peshawar for the Paramhans Mandir and to Karachi for the Hinglaj Mata Mandir.

The erstwhile “Indian Airlines” last flew to Pakistan in March 2008, whereas, the trade between India and Pakistan has been suspended since August 2019 due to New Delhi’s amendment of Article 370 and other measures in occupied Jammu and Kashmir.