NSA not to attend meet convened by India
NEW DELHI, Nov 3:
Pakistan yesterday denied use of its airspace to Go First’s Srinagar-Sharjah flight, inaugurated by Union Home Minister Amit Shah during his visit to the Valley last month.
Pakistan’s denial forced the flight to take a longer route and fly over Gujarat to reach its destination in the UAE, the Government officials said on Wednesday.
Go First, previously known as GoAir, had started direct flights between Srinagar and Sharjah from October 23 onwards.
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According to officials, till October 31, GoAir’s Srinagar-Sharjah flight was going through Pakistan airspace.
However, Pakistan on Tuesday did not allow the flight to pass through its airspace, and therefore, the service had to take a longer route, going over Gujarat, adding around 40 minutes to the flight time, they said.
There were no reasons given by the Pakistan Government as yet for refusing the permission to the flight, officials said.
Go First did not respond to PTI’s request for a statement on this matter.
This is the first service between Jammu and Kashmir and the UAE after 11 years. Air India Express had started a Srinagar-Dubai flight in February 2009 but it was discontinued after some time due to low demand.
Reacting to Pakistan’s action, former J&K Chief Minister and National Conference leader Omar Abdullah tweeted “very unfortunate. Pakistan did the same thing with the Air India Express flight from Srinagar to Dubai in 2009-2010. I had hoped that @GoFirstairways being permitted to overfly Pak airspace was indicative of a thaw in relations but alas that wasn’t to be.”
Meanwhile, Pakistan National Security Adviser Moeed Yusuf has said he will not be visiting India for the November 10 NSA-level regional meet on Afghanistan.
Asked at a media interaction if he would be travelling to India for the meet being convened by Indian NSA Ajit Doval, he said I will not be going, and added a spoiler cannot be a peace maker, in an apparent reference to India.
Five regional countries, Russia, Pakistan, China, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan have been invited by India to participate in the November 10 meeting.
Russia had convened the Moscow Format talks last month, which India had attended at the Joint Secretary level. Russia also convened the Troika Plus talks, involving Russia, the US, China, and Pakistan, on Afghanistan. However, the US did not attend.
The third meeting of the Moscow Format Consultations on Afghanistan was held on October 20, with the participation of special representatives or senior officials from Russia, China, Pakistan, Iran, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, as well as a high-level delegation of the interim Afghan Government.
A Taliban delegation led by Maulvi Abdul Salam Hanafi, Deputy Prime Minister of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, attended the talks in Moscow.
He separately met with JP Singh, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs, which was India’s first high-level contact with the Taliban Government in Kabul.
Iran also convened a meet on Afghanistan last week at the level of foreign ministers, attended by Pakistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan ministers in Tehran, who were joined by their counterparts from China and Russia via video link. (Agencies).
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