ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will train Afghan aviation personnel in air traffic control and airport operations, officials in Islamabad said on Thursday, following the visit of Afghanistan’s interim foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, to Pakistan last week.
The Afghan embassy in Islamabad said in a statement earlier this week that the two sides had agreed that Pakistan would provide professional training to Afghan aviation personnel.
Pakistan’s foreign office spokesperson Asim Iftikhar confirmed to Arab News that Islamabad is “ready to offer professional capacity building to Afghans in requisite areas” including aviation.
Noor Ahmed, deputy secretary of the Pakistani government’s aviation division, told Arab News that the country’s national flag carrier Pakistan International Airlines and Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority are both ready to assist Afghan personnel.
PCAA air transport director Irfan Sabir, who was part of the Pakistani delegation during the Afghan foreign minister’s visit to Islamabad, said Afghanistan had “requested us to provide training in air traffic control, radar control, aircraft maintenance and operational training and airport operations training.”
Training, he added, would take place at the Civil Aviation Training Institute in Hyderabad and would begin as soon as the two countries sign a memorandum of understanding, the details of which are currently being worked out.
“Once our MOU is signed, then we will accept trainees from Afghanistan,” he said.
