ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Tuesday inaugurated the long-delayed new airport in the capital, Islamabad, replacing the cramped Benazir Bhutto airport often criticized by travelers.
A Pakistan International Airlines pilot waved a green and white Pakistani flag out of his cockpit window after landing the carrier’s first commercial flight at the New International Islamabad Airport.
With a sleek glass-front entrance, spacious check-in areas and jetway bridges for boarding, the Y-shaped airport promises an end to the congestion that has frustrated air travel in the past.
“This airport rightly reflects what has happened in Pakistan in the last five years,” said Abbasi.
Abbasi’s ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party had been eager to open the new airport before national polls, likely in July, as it touts big-ticket infrastructure as sign of economic progress in the South Asian nation of 208 million people.
Abbasi’s government is spending billions of dollars on upgrading Pakistan’s transport infrastructure and ending energy blackouts, with freshly paved motorways as well as dams and power plants popping up across the country.
Abbasi, who has a pilot’s license and is a founder of a Pakistani budget airline, said new airports in the cities of Multan, Faisalabad, Quetta and Peshawar were in the final stages.
The new Islamabad airport, which has the capacity to handle 15 million passengers annually and space for further expansion, was first suggested in the 1980s and has been more than a decade in the making.
The delays have become a running joke with many Pakistanis, who mock the frequent announcements that the new airport would open soon and subsequent clarifications of further delays. The airport’s most recent delay was last month.
“Nothing is impossible but this project definitely seemed impossible,” quipped Abbasi, in reference to his government inheriting the project in 2013.
The new airport is about 15 km (nine miles) from the capital. Benazir Bhutto airport was in the nearby city of Rawalpindi and attached to a military base.
International travelers often complained about chaotic scenes at the airport and in 2014 it was voted the worst in the world by the “Guide to Sleeping in Airports” website, prompting widespread criticism of the airport in Pakistani media.
The new airport is due to start full operation on Thursday.
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Pakistan PM inaugurates long-delayed new airport in capital Islamabad
Pakistan PM inaugurates long-delayed new airport in capital Islamabad
- The newly-constructed airport in Islamabad replaces the cramped Benazir Bhutto airport often criticized by travelers
- A Pakistan International Airlines pilot waved a green and white Pakistani flag out of his cockpit window after landing the carrier’s first commercial flight at the new international airport
US, Russian officials to meet in Florida for more Ukraine talks
- US negotiators held talks with Ukrainian, European officials on Friday
- Putin says Ukraine must abandon NATO ambitions, withdraw from claimed regions
WASHINGTON: Negotiators are set to meet Russian officials in Florida on Saturday for the latest talks aimed at ending Russia’s war in Ukraine, as President Donald Trump’s administration tries to coax an agreement out of both Russia and Ukraine to end the conflict.
The meeting follows US talks on Friday with Ukrainian and European officials, the latest discussions of a peace plan that has sparked some hope of a resolution to the conflict that began when Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022. President Vladimir Putin’s envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, is leading the Russian delegation that will meet with property tycoon-turned-diplomat Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Marco Rubio, Trump’s top diplomat and national security adviser, said he may also join the talks. Previous meetings have taken place at Witkoff’s golf club in Miami’s Hallandale Beach. US, Ukrainian and European officials earlier this week reported progress on security guarantees for Kyiv as part of the talks to end the war, but it remains unclear if those terms will be acceptable to Moscow.
A Russian source told Reuters that any meeting between Dmitriev and the Ukrainian negotiators had been ruled out.
PUTIN OFFERING NO COMPROMISE
US intelligence reports continue to warn that Russian President Vladimir Putin intends to capture all of Ukraine, sources familiar with the intelligence said, contradicting some US officials’ assertions that Moscow is ready for peace. Putin offered no compromise during his annual press conference in Moscow, insisting that Russia’s terms for ending the war had not changed since June 2024, when he demanded Ukraine abandon its ambition to join NATO and withdraw entirely from four Ukrainian regions Russia claims as its own territory.
Kyiv says it will not cede land that Moscow’s forces have failed to capture in nearly four years of war.
Ukraine’s top negotiator Rustem Umerov said US and European teams on Friday held talks and agreed to pursue their joint efforts.
“We agreed with our American partners on further steps and on continuing our joint work in the near future,” Umerov wrote on Telegram of the discussions in the United States, adding that he had informed President Volodymyr Zelensky of the outcome of the talks.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Rubio told reporters earlier on Friday that progress has been made in discussions to end the war but there is still a way to go.
“In the end, it’s up to them to make a deal. We can’t force Ukraine to make a deal. We can’t force Russia to make a deal. They have to want to make a deal,” Rubio said.
“The role we’re trying to play is a role of figuring out whether there’s any overlap here that they can agree to, and that’s what we’ve invested a lot of time and energy and continue to do so. That may not be possible. I hope it is. I hope it can get done this month before the end of the year.”
The meeting follows US talks on Friday with Ukrainian and European officials, the latest discussions of a peace plan that has sparked some hope of a resolution to the conflict that began when Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022. President Vladimir Putin’s envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, is leading the Russian delegation that will meet with property tycoon-turned-diplomat Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Marco Rubio, Trump’s top diplomat and national security adviser, said he may also join the talks. Previous meetings have taken place at Witkoff’s golf club in Miami’s Hallandale Beach. US, Ukrainian and European officials earlier this week reported progress on security guarantees for Kyiv as part of the talks to end the war, but it remains unclear if those terms will be acceptable to Moscow.
A Russian source told Reuters that any meeting between Dmitriev and the Ukrainian negotiators had been ruled out.
PUTIN OFFERING NO COMPROMISE
US intelligence reports continue to warn that Russian President Vladimir Putin intends to capture all of Ukraine, sources familiar with the intelligence said, contradicting some US officials’ assertions that Moscow is ready for peace. Putin offered no compromise during his annual press conference in Moscow, insisting that Russia’s terms for ending the war had not changed since June 2024, when he demanded Ukraine abandon its ambition to join NATO and withdraw entirely from four Ukrainian regions Russia claims as its own territory.
Kyiv says it will not cede land that Moscow’s forces have failed to capture in nearly four years of war.
Ukraine’s top negotiator Rustem Umerov said US and European teams on Friday held talks and agreed to pursue their joint efforts.
“We agreed with our American partners on further steps and on continuing our joint work in the near future,” Umerov wrote on Telegram of the discussions in the United States, adding that he had informed President Volodymyr Zelensky of the outcome of the talks.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Rubio told reporters earlier on Friday that progress has been made in discussions to end the war but there is still a way to go.
“In the end, it’s up to them to make a deal. We can’t force Ukraine to make a deal. We can’t force Russia to make a deal. They have to want to make a deal,” Rubio said.
“The role we’re trying to play is a role of figuring out whether there’s any overlap here that they can agree to, and that’s what we’ve invested a lot of time and energy and continue to do so. That may not be possible. I hope it is. I hope it can get done this month before the end of the year.”
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