Pak to blame for Malaysian PM’s flight delay: Centre

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 26

India has distanced itself from the controversy over the longer time taken by Malaysian PM Mohd Mahathir’s special plane to reach Islamabad where he was to attend Pakistan National Day function as the chief guest.

The Centre pinned the blame on Pakistan that had enforced a complete air-flight closure (which was later partially eased) after the IAF strikes at a Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) camp in Balakot, Pakistan, in February.

Malaysia is especially sensitive to contested air spaces as it lost a scheduled passenger flight over eastern Ukraine about five years ago. Pakistan may have sought to play on those fears when its officials claimed that Mahathir’s flight to Islamabad took longer than usual because India had denied overflight permission.

Government sources here rebuffed those reports as “false and motivated”. They said, “The truth is that Pakistan has blocked its own airspace to flights overflying India. Therefore, though the Indian authorities had given overflight permission to the Malaysian PM’s flight, it had to take a longer route because Pakistan had denied it the permission.”