Daily Times

Gunmen fired on a PIA plane coming in to land at Peshawar airport on Tuesday night, killing a woman on board and injuring three others. Flight PK 756 carrying 178 passengers was returning from Saudi Arabia when it came under attack. It was hit by at least 12 bullets fired from a submachinegun, killing the woman and narrowly missing the captain. At least one bullet struck one of the plane’s engines. The woman’s daughter was sitting next to her when she was shot in the head. This is the third incident at a Pakistani airport this month and will raise further questions about whether the government is prepared for a Taliban backlash after the launch of operation Zarb-e-Azb in the tribal areas 10 days ago. Pakistan was already under scrutiny by international airlines after the attack on Karachi airport that lasted three days and left 30 people dead earlier this month. Cathay Pacific stopped flights to Karachi in the aftermath of the attack. Then on Tuesday, Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) leader Tahirul Qadri created an uproar after refusing to disembark for five and a half hours from an Emirates International flight that was diverted to Lahore from Islamabad by the federal government over ‘security concerns’. Emirates has banned Tahirul Qadri for life and briefly considered initiating legal proceedings against him for keeping the aircraft ‘hostage’ for several hours. The diversion also creates a commercial concern for international airlines that are afraid of their flight schedules being disrupted.
The decision to divert the flight was taken by the Prime Minister (PM) but the idea came from Federal Minister for Railways and Transport, Khawaja Saad Rafique, who apparently did not consider the economic and policy implications of diverting international flights. Whether the minister cites security or political concerns, international airlines will either take exception to manipulation of their flight schedules, or then reduce flights to Pakistan based on what appear to them to be valid security concerns. The economic cost of losing international transit is significant, but there is an additional political cost that is incalculable. Financially, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) charges international airlines to park, use airport facilities, and to transit Pakistani airspace. Pakistan’s receding position as a destination is hence a significant financial loss and has its roots in the inability of successive governments to develop airport facilities against competition from destinations like Dubai.
However, the most important condition for airlines is security, and after these recent incidents Karachi is probably ranked with Damascus and Baghdad in terms of places to avoid. This is the political cost: increased isolation born of myopic vision that ignores international laws and rules in favour of purely local considerations. What is particularly troubling about the attack in Peshawar is that it comes after the attack in Karachi, when security at airports around the country should have been on high alert. Peshawar is also a Pakistan Air Force base, and given the importance of air power in the current military operation against the terrorists, one would assume it is under the tightest security. Currently investigators are at a loss as to who committed the attack or how they perpetrated it; no one has claimed responsibility so far. Some 200 suspects have been rounded up but this appears to be a routine mass netting of the usual suspects rather than genuine investigation. Making Pakistan an international pariah is the goal of the terrorists and there are few ways better than for the country to lose its aviation credibility and be cut off from the world. A trend of terrorists attacking airports is emerging and by making international norms subject to local developments, the government is playing directly into their hands. Currently many countries support Pakistan’s fight against terrorism. However, if the next flight to be targeted is an international airline, their support will waver. A thorough review of airport security procedures needs to be carried out and security tightened in the aftermath of this attack. Airports are difficult to protect and security must be predicated on knowledge of possible attacks. Hence civilian law enforcement agencies must take the lead in investigation. The measures need to be taken soon since one can expect more of the same medicine from the terrorists at any time. *