UK MP calls on authorities to resume direct flights to Pakistan

LONDON - Member of the UK Parliament, Naz Shah has stressed the authorities in the United Kingdom to resume direct flights to Pakistan.

The MP wrote a letter to the Secretary of State for Transport of the United Kingdom, Mark Harper to permit direct flights between the two countries.

The lawmaker emphasized that around 2,70,000 Pakistanis residing in the UK are affected by the flight disruption between the two countries. The direct flights between the two countries through Pakistan International Airlines are at a halt SInce July 2020. Not only that, the direct flights through other carriers have also been affected.

At present, PIA’s vast network spans the globe, flying to 25 countries across Asia, Europe and North America, and to 24 cities within Pakistan.

In 2020, European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) had suspended Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight operations for Europe over safety concerns.

EASA said that they had suspended the Third Country Operator (TCO) Authorisation to PIA after it failed to comply with the proposed corrective action plans (CAPs).

At least six findings were raised with the PIA officials during meetings in June and September 2019, out of which five of the action plans were implemented while one other concerning element of a Safety Management Systems was not implemented.

Naz Shah has been an active lawmaker in the parliament and has advocated on behalf of Pakistan before the legislators even during the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Back in 2021, the Bradford lawmaker wrote a letter to UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, inquiring why Pakistan was added to the ‘red list’ when it has “substantially lower cases” as compared to France, India and Germany.

“What scientific data is any decision being led by?” she wrote while referring to Covid cases, noting that France, Germany and India had 403, 137 and 24 infections per 100,000 persons, respectively, whereas Pakistan had 13.

Shah had pointed out that the South African variant was not a concern in Pakistan whereas “it is in France”.

“This begs the question why hasn’t the government extended the red list to France, Germany and India,” she wondered.