QUETTA: Police officials in Balochistan’s Hub district confirmed on Thursday 17 pilgrims from the neighboring Sindh province were killed and 40 wounded after a truck carrying them to a shrine in Khuzdar fell into a ditch while taking a sharp turn.
The crash took place on Wednesday night when dozens of people from Sindh’s Thatha district were traveling to the shrine of Shah Noorani located nearly 300 kilometers from Balochistan’s provincial capital of Quetta.
Noorani, a Sufi saint, is believed to have belonged to the 12th or 13th century, with locals saying his teachings contributed significantly to the spread of Islam in the area.
“17 pilgrims were killed in the fatal accident and 40 injured,” Abdul Waheed Baloch, Station House Officer (SHO) of Dureji located in Hub district where the incident happened, told Arab News. “They were initially taken to Jam Ghulam Qadir Hospital in Hub city. Later, most of the injured people were shifted to Karachi for better medical treatment.”
Baloch said the truck driver carrying the pilgrims was inexperienced and unfamiliar with the road leading to the shrine.
“He was traveling to Balochistan for the first time and didn’t know the routes and curves leading to the shrine,” he said.
The SHO added the driver the driver was speeding and jumped out of the truck to save his life.
Later, Senior Superintendent Police in Hub district Manzoor Buledi told Arab News the driver had been arrested and brought in for interrogation.
Medical Superintendent of Jam Ghulam Qadir Hospital Dr. Nasir Sheikh confirmed 20 injured with critical wounds were referred to Karachi after initial medical care.
“The Balochistan government contacted the Sindh administration for better medical treatment of the injured while the bodies of the pilgrims were being shifted to their native villages,” Balochistan’s provincial authority informed in a statement.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also expressed sorrow over the traffic accident, praying for those who lost their lives in it.
He expressed condolences to the families of those who died in the accident while hoping for the speedy recovery of the injured.
According to a statement issued by his office, he directed the authorities to provide all possible medical assistance to the injured.
Fatal road accidents are common in Pakistan, where traffic rules are rarely followed and roads, particularly in many rural and underdeveloped areas, are in poor condition.
Last year in January, 41 people lost their lives when a passenger bus, loaded with oil containers, fell into a ravine in Balochistan and went up in flames.
17 dead, 40 injured after truck plunges into ravine in southwestern Pakistan
https://arab.news/wmw7a
17 dead, 40 injured after truck plunges into ravine in southwestern Pakistan
- The incident took place as dozens of pilgrims from neighboring Sindh were traveling to a Sufi shrine in Balochistan
- Police arrest the driver, call him inexperienced and unfamiliar with the road leading to the shrine in Khuzdar
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.”
