Pakistan’s prime minister has ordered an investigation into an advertisement by the country’s flag carrier that was criticized for resembling the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Pakistan International Airlines’ advertisement announcing the resumption of flights from Islamabad to Paris, which was posted on its official X account on January 10, shows a plane flying towards the Eiffel Tower with the slogan “Paris, we are coming today.”
The post has received over 21 million views on X since it was published.
The announcement quickly sparked reactions on social media from commentators who said it evoked images of the 9/11 attacks, when two hijacked passenger planes crashed into the World Trade Center in New York, killing nearly 3,000 people.
“Did airline management not look into this?” Omar Quraishi, former political media advisor, said in X.
The airline has not commented publicly on the announcement. He could not be reached for comment Thursday.
Ishaq Dar, Pakistan’s deputy prime minister and foreign minister, told lawmakers this week that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had ordered an investigation into the controversy and described the announcement as “stupidity,” Pakistan’s Geo News reported.
Pakistan has long struggled against domestic terrorism as well as the overseas activities of terrorists based there. The alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, was arrested in Pakistan in 2003, while Osama bin Laden, whose Al Qaeda terrorist group masterminded the attacks, was killed there by US forces in 2011.
PIA flights to the European Union were suspended from 2020 until the end of last year over safety concerns after almost a third of its pilots were found to have cheated on their exams. The airline remains banned in the United States and Britain.
Sharif had said the resumption of flights to the EU would help improve the airline’s image.
