The airline stated situations had worsened for the reason that Taliban shaped a brand new Afghan authorities final month and that “PIA and its workers place in Kabul have been handled very heavy-handedly by the brand new [Taliban] commanders.” PIA stated commanders had been “altering laws and flight permissions on the final moments or deciding at a whim somewhat than assembly worldwide laws.”
The assertion additionally claimed that PIA’s nation consultant was “held up at gun level for hours when he left the Pakistan embassy compound” on the Taliban’s “suspicion of aiding and abetting” folks searching for to flee Afghanistan.
PIA additionally accused Afghanistan’s aviation ministry of slashing half the variety of passengers from one flight this week that was already within the means of checking in. “This resulted in 176 folks, fleeing for his or her lives, being despatched again dwelling by the airline officers, inflicting almost half a million-dollar loss to the airline as a result of increased insurance coverage prices,” the airline stated.
PIA spokesman Abdullah Khan instructed CNN on Thursday that the choice to renew flying into Kabul “was taken on purely humanitarian grounds, and on the robust insistence of pleasant organizations.”
Khan stated the insurance coverage premium on these flights is “so excessive” that it’s “merely unattainable to function scheduled flights to Kabul, as it’s nonetheless thought-about a battle zone by plane insurance coverage firms.”
Khan additionally stated that “it is vitally irritating that the laws carry on altering for every flight and the authorities all the time confuse constitution permissions with schedule permissions.”
Khan stated PIA would reevaluate its choice to droop flights “if the scenario on floor improves and [becomes] extra conducive for worldwide operations.”
