ISLAMABAD – The federal government has decided to abandon its plan to outsource the management and operations of Islamabad International Airport to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) after the Gulf country lost interest in the project.
Reports said the deadlock between the two countries started when the UAE failed to designate any agency for the outsourcing process, despite repeated reminders.
As a result, the Pakistani government has given approval to include Islamabad International Airport in the active privatization list, following the recent success of the privatization of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA).
Although the UAE initially showed interest in the project, it did not provide the name of any nominated entity, indicating a lack of further interest.
Pakistani officials had sent a final reminder to the UAE, seeking a decision, but the UAE responded by stating it was not in a position to nominate an agency. The UAE also made it clear that it was no longer interested in proceeding with the project.
Previously, the Pakistani government had rejected a UAE request to include Karachi’s Jinnah International Airport and Lahore’s Allama Iqbal International Airport in the proposed Government-to-Government (G2G) framework agreement. Similarly, Pakistan did not support the UAE’s request to privatize air links between Abu Dhabi and Pakistan.
