Pakistan Reportedly Bans Its Airspace to Flights Between Kashmir and UAE

Pakistan has been lobbying the international community to rally against India's August 2019 decision to scrap the semi-autonomous status of Jammu and Kashmir. After India announced the new Srinagar-Sharjah flight last month, several observers in Pakistan criticised their government for allowing the new flight to make use of the nation's airspace.

Pakistan has allegedly banned commercial and cargo flights flying between Kashmir's Srinagar and the UAE's Sharjah from using its airspace, as per media reports.

No immediate reason has been given for Islamabad's purported decision.

The flight between Sheikh Ul-Alam international Airport in Srinagar, the capital of Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir, and Dubai was inaugurated by India's Home Minister Amit Shah on 23 October. The first flight between the two destinations occurred on 26 October.

Shri. Kaushik Khona, CEO, Go Airlines (India) Ltd. thanked Shri. @AmitShah, Hon’ble Union Minister of Home Affairs, with a Go First memento at the inauguration ceremony of our flight from #Srinagar To #Sharjah. Special thanks to @MoCA_GoI pic.twitter.com/Y7FOBgFuXf

— GO FIRST (@GoFirstairways) October 27, 2021

The four-times-a-week flight is being operated by the private Indian airline Go First.

As per reports, the Go First flight that took off from Srinagar for Sharjah on Tuesday (1 November) was denied permission to use Pakistani airspace by the country's civil aviation authorities, thus forcing it to take a longer route via the western coast of India, Arabian Sea, and Oman before it touched down at the airport in the UAE.

Prominent Kashmiri politician and former state chief Omar Abdullah described Pakistan's decision as "unfortunate".

Another key Kashmiri politician and former state chief Mehbooba Mufti questioned if the Indian government had consulted Islamabad at all before starting the flight service.

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. https://t.co/WhXzLbftxf

— Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) November 3, 2021

Puzzling that GOI didn’t even bother securing permission from Pakistan to use its airspace for international flights from Srinagar. Only PR extravaganza without any groundwork. https://t.co/3Cbj91C6Pb

— Mehbooba Mufti (@MehboobaMufti) November 3, 2021

Flight operations between the two centres had been suspended since 2009, when Air India Express (a government-backed carrier) discontinued flights on account of "low-passenger" demand, as per news reports.

When reviving the flight service last month, Home Minister Shah expressed confidence that this connectivity would boost tourism in the Kashmir region.

In a social media post in Hindi, Shah had also hoped that the revival of flight operations would lead to "favourable business outcomes" and the creation of "more employment opportunities".

Shah's visit to the region was his first since August 2019, when New Delhi scrapped Jammu and Kashmir's semi-autonomous status under the Indian Constitution and bifurcated the then-state into two federal territories - Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.

The Indian government says that its August 2019 move directly led to a decrease in militancy in Jammu and Kashmir and led to more investment in the region.

The Jammu and Kashmir region is administered by India but its sovereignty over the territory is disputed by Islamabad, who, in turn, controls another part of Kashmir.

India's August 2019 decision was rejected by Pakistan, who also accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government of trying to alter the demography of Jammu and Kashmir, the only Muslim-majority state in India.

New Delhi, however, has repeatedly rejected Islamabad's criticism, as it terms all the decisions related to Jammu and Kashmir as an "internal matter".