ISLAMABAD: The United States is “in regular touch” with Pakistan over the situation in Afghanistan and there was “consensus” between the two nations that gains made in the landlocked country over the past 20 years, particularly on women and civil rights, needed to be preserved, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said on Wednesday.
The statement comes a day after Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US would reassess ties with Pakistan in the coming weeks to formulate what role Washington would want it to play in the future of Afghanistan.
In the first public hearing in Congress about Afghanistan since last month’s collapse of the US-backed Afghan government, Blinken told the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee that Pakistan had a “multiplicity of interests some that are in conflict with ours.”
“So, when it comes to Pakistan, we have been in regular touch with Pakistani counterparts as well as Pakistani leadership,” Price said at a press briefing. “We’ve discussed Afghanistan in some detail.”
The spokesperson said Pakistan was represented at a recent meeting convened by Secretary Blinken and German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas at the Ramstein Airbase in Germany.
“Pakistan contributed to that forum, echoed much of what we heard from other participants. And as I said before, there was a good deal of consensus that the gains of the past 20 years, especially on the part of Afghanistan’s women and girls and minorities, is – preserving those is in everyone’s interests,” Price said.
“Easing the humanitarian plight of the people of Afghanistan is in everyone’s interest. That includes Pakistan as well as countries that may be farther afield.”
Pakistan had frequently advocated for an inclusive government with broad support in Afghanistan and what Secretary Blinken referred to was that the US would continue to look to Pakistan and other countries in the region to make good on “commitments they have made, to in different ways step up to support the people of Afghanistan and to work constructively not only with us but the international community to see to it that the priorities that we share – and that includes the humanitarian concerns, it concerns the rights and the gains of the Afghan people over the past 20 years, as well as the counterterrorism concerns that we all have – to ensure that we are all walking in the same direction,” Price said.
The US and Western countries have been in a difficult balancing act in the aftermath of the Taliban’s victory in Afghanistan — reluctant to recognize the group while accepting the reality that they will have to engage with it to prevent a looming humanitarian crisis.
Pakistan has had deep ties with the Taliban and has been accused of supporting the group as it battled the US-backed government in Kabul for 20 years — charges denied by Islamabad.
It is also considered as one of the two countries, along with Qatar, with the most influence over the Taliban, and a place where many senior Taliban leaders were thought to have escaped to after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.
US ‘in regular touch’ with Pakistan over Afghanistan situation — State Department spokesman
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US ‘in regular touch’ with Pakistan over Afghanistan situation — State Department spokesman
- Says Pakistan and US agree gains of last 20 years, particularly on women and civil rights, need to be preserved
- Easing the humanitarian plight of people of Afghanistan is in everyone’s interest including Pakistan, Price says
New PIA owner plans more GCC flights, lower airfares
- New management will focus on religious tourism to Makkah, Madinah and other sites to expand global reach
- Owner Arif Habib says airfares will be rationalized to make PIA flights affordable for low-income Pakistanis
KARACHI: Pakistan’s recently privatized national carrier, the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), plans to increase its flights to the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region as part of its post-privatization business strategy to achieve 7.5% annual revenue growth, its new owner said this week.
A Pakistani consortium, led by Arif Habib Group, clinched a 75% stake in PIA for Rs135 billion ($482 million) on Dec. 23 after a competitive bidding process, in a deal that valued the airline at Rs180 billion ($643 million).
The sale marked Pakistan’s most ambitious effort in decades to reform the debt-ridden airline that had accumulated over Rs784 billion ($2.8 billion) in losses. The government said it aimed to end decades of state-funded bailouts and support the airline’s revival.
In an exclusive interview with Arab News, Arif Habib, chairman of Arif Habib Group, shared that he aims to attract around 70 million Pakistanis, who travel annually via different airlines, by making airfares more affordable.
“That [GCC region] is our biggest market... We would definitely try to increase the frequency of flights, increase the number of planes there, and try to capture more market share in that area,” Habib told Arab News on Monday.
“So, there we see a lot of opportunity.”
The new management of PIA, which currently caters to 4 million passengers annually, aims to target religious tourism, which Habib called a “captive market” in Pakistan and the Middle East.
According to PIA spokesperson Abdullah Hafeez Khan, the airline runs around 20 flights daily to the Middle East.
Habib plans to invest around Rs112 billion ($400 million) in PIA to turn the airline around, implementing short- and long-term improvements ranging from upgrading seats to tripling the 19-aircraft fleet, and engaging a foreign airline as a technical partner through strategic divestment over the next seven to eight years.
The group also intends to reduce PIA fares to make air travel more affordable for passengers from Pakistan’s low-income groups.
“Yes, we have been advised that in order to increase our market share, we will have to rationalize the airfares,” Habib said. “That is in the plan, and we will unfold it as it comes.”
The new owners have engaged a global advisory firm, Seabury Aviation Partners, to identify viable markets for the newly privatized airline and expand its presence both locally and internationally.
Habib aims for up to 7.5% annual growth in PIA’s operational revenues to make it profitable and the new management is targeting European and North American markets, particularly routes to and from the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada, for this purpose.
“The UK is the most lucrative market where I think there is a lot of demand,” he said, adding they would also be seeking more flight destinations. “Even for USA there is demand there.”
Habib, however, said the airline would take time to deliver “reasonable” returns to its investors, including AKD Group Holdings, Fatima Fertilizer Company, City Schools, Lake City Holdings and Fauji Fertilizer Company, a publicly listed firm owned by Pakistan’s military.
“In initial period of one to two years, we may see some losses but into medium term, I think, that would be turned around,” he concluded.
PIA posted a pre-tax profit of Rs11.5 billion ($41 million) for the January–June 2025 period, its first such profit for this timeframe in nearly two decades, according to a Reuters report in September. The airline recorded losses during the same period in 2024.
Once considered one of Asia’s leading carriers, PIA struggled with chronic mismanagement, political interference, overstaffing, mounting debt, and operational issues that led to a 2020 ban on flights to the European Union, the UK, and the US following a pilot licensing scandal. The EU and UK have since lifted their bans, giving the airline renewed momentum, while the US ban remains in place.
On Tuesday, PIA announced that the airline will be expanding its UK operations and will operate four weekly flights from Islamabad to London starting Mar. 29.
“The flights are being resumed after a long gap of six years,” PIA spokesman Khan said in a statement. “PIA is already operating three weekly flights to Manchester.”
