PM orders inquiry into controversial PIA ad amid social media backlash

ISLAMABAD: In response to Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) controversial post , the Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has ordered an inquiry to investigate who created and posted the stupid advertisement on the official site of X formally known as twitter of PIA.

The image showed a plane on its way to the Eiffel Tower, with the French flag as a backdrop and the caption “Paris, we are coming today.”

Scorn erupted far and wide on the internet once it became known that this post created by PIA bore a semblable  to the disaster of 9/11 when almost 3,000 people died.

While addressing the parliament, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar quoted the Prime Minister saying that an inquiry would be conducted to fix who conceived the advertisement branded “rubbish.”

Dar lamented the post’s caption that drew severe comments from netizens including Omar Quraishi, who asked what creative agency the PIA had.

Discussions on the controversy were held at the Senate session, where Senator Sherry Rehman slammed the advertisement as breaching security and liberty concerns of PIA in its intention. She asked who had cleared the ad and why the ad had gone live without thorough scrutiny.

Senator Rehman was also worried about the operational status of the airline because it seems that only 19 aircraft out of 34 are operational. Senator Dar stated that the Prime Minister had noticed the matter and ordered an independent inquiry into the advertisement creation and approval process.

Dar reiterated the government’s plan to privatize PIA, arguing that it will follow all due processes in a transparent manner.

The Deputy Prime Minister stated that, there are  22 aircraft are operational: six Boeings, 11 Airbuses, and five ATRs. Six Boeings and five Airbuses are undergoing repairs.

Expressing optimism regarding the resumption of PIA flights to the UK by March or April, he stated that a UK team is likely to visit Pakistan around the end of January for a physical assessment.

Discussions also touched upon all previous controversies generated by remarks from Ghulam Sarwar Khan, the former minister for aviation, who claimed that PIA pilots were on the threshold of holding fake licenses, thereby forcing a ban on PIA flights into Europe, the UK, and the US, causing extensive reputational damage to Pakistan’s aviation sector.

Senator Rehman raised more general concerns, arguing against the ambiguity that surrounds the PIA privatization plan, causing the government to assure the public by providing the ideas on operations to be carried on. Dar stood in support of this privatization initiative, saying that it was moving on fast.