Zubair Qureshi
The National Assembly (NA) on Thursday passed a resolution, presented by a Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) three Members of National Assembly to restore the Islamabad International Airport’s (IIAP) as Shaheed Benazir Bhutto International Airport (SBBIA).
The newly-constructed airport was made operational in May 2018 by the government of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) only two months before the general elections.
The PML-N Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi had left the issue open for debate with three names “Liaquat Ali Khan Airport,” “Mohtarma Fatima Jinnah Airport,” and “Gandhara International Airport.”
After the elections the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) came to power and the then Prime Minister Imran Khan also put off the matter of naming the new airport.
For the time being it is called Islamabad International Airport while the parliamentarians particularly those hailing from eh Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) had been repeatedly demanding to restore the name given to the old airport in Rawalpindi i.e. Benazir Bhutto International Airport (BBIA).
On Thursday, the PPP MNAs Dr Mehreen Bhutto, Nawabzada Iftikhar and Naz Baloch presented a resolution in the National Assembly demanding to restore the international airport’s name to Shaheed Benazir International Airport (SBBIA).
The resolution that was unanimously passed reads that the previous government changed the name on the basis of bias and political enmity.
The nation cannot forget the Bhutto family’s sacrifices for democracy, and in the framing of the country’s constitution, it added. Therefore, Islamabad International airport’s previous name should be restored.
