ISLAMABAD (The Thursday Times) — Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Thursday he had ordered officials to work out direct flights between Pakistan and the Maldives, telling the Ministry of Civil Aviation to prepare a quick feasibility study and find a way to get the first flight carrying tourists and the business community to Malé off the ground.
Speaking at the Pakistan-Maldives Business Forum in Islamabad, which Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu attended on the third day of his state visit, Shehbaz said connectivity between the two countries was “very important,” noting that “we don’t have direct flights from Malé to Islamabad or Karachi.”
A quick study, then a delegation
The prime minister told the Civil Aviation Department to invite a Maldivian delegation and draw up a plan to start flights “as early as possible,” and said the study should cover “Pakistan International Airlines, or any other airline in Pakistan.” He said a delegation of Pakistani officials and businessmen would travel to Malé within the next week or so, once Muizzu returns home.
Shehbaz added that President Asif Ali Zardari had told him he had instructed Maldivian carriers to draw up a similarly quick plan for flights in the other direction.
Part of a wider push
The flights pledge came as Pakistan and the Maldives set a target of raising bilateral trade to $200 million within two years and signed 20 memorandums of understanding during Muizzu’s visit, the first by a Maldivian president to Pakistan in 11 years.∎
