Direct Flights Resume Between Pakistan and Bangladesh

In a watershed moment for South Asian diplomacy, direct flights between Pakistan and Bangladesh resumed on November 26, 2024, after a seven-year hiatus, heralding a thaw in relations strained since the 1971 liberation war. Announced by Bangladesh's High Commissioner to Islamabad, Iqbal Hussain Khan, during a Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry meeting, the inaugural service—operated by Iran's Mahan Air with three weekly round-trips between Karachi and Dhaka—slashes travel time from 10-12 hours via Gulf hubs to just 3.5 hours, using Indian airspace for efficiency. This reconnection, timed with the first direct cargo vessel docking at Chittagong from Karachi in mid-November, underscores the post-Hasina era's momentum. Ousted in August 2024 amid student-led protests, former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's India-leaning policies had chilled ties; her successor, interim Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus, has pivoted toward multilateral engagement, including eased visas—now granted on LCCI recommendations—and bilateral MoUs for a Joint Trade Working Group. Proponents, including Pakistani exporters eyeing Bangladesh's $500 billion market, project trade surging from $800 million to $3 billion by 2028, fueled by Pakistani rice and textiles swapping for Bangladeshi pineapples, garments, and IT services. Medical tourism and family reunions, severed for decades, stand to revive, with 50,000 annual passengers anticipated. Yet, skeptics in Dhaka's opposition circles decry the haste as overlooking 1971 war crimes accountability, while Indian analysts fret over eroded regional leverage. As Biman Bangladesh Airlines gears for reciprocal routes in 2025, this aerial bridge symbolizes reconciliation's fragile flight path, blending economic pragmatism with historical healing in a volatile neighborhood.