Pakistan mulls full airspace closure for India.

ISLAMABAD -- Pakistan is mulling to impose a ban on the use of Pakistani airspace by Indian airlines as well as an embargo on the use of Pakistani land routes for India's trade with Afghanistan.

The ban on Indian flights was thoroughly debated during the cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday.

According to informed sources, Prime Minister Imran directed the ministries of law, aviation, defence, and other relevant departments to take all necessary actions to fulfill the international obligations in this regard.

It merits mention here that all the governments have to follow regulations for air safety and the airspace can only be closed for any country after making a case and keeping in view all necessary legal and international aviation laws.

The federal cabinet debated this issue thoroughly but could not take a final decision. Later, the prime minister chaired a follow-up meeting and directed the relevant authorities to make necessary arrangements.

The reason for a potential ban that may come into effect by Thursday is that Pakistan 'fears a threat from India keeping in view the hostile situation on the Line of Control (LoC)'.

Moreover, the situation in the Indian occupied Kashmir (IoK) also doesn't allow Pakistan to take any risk.

This would be a second time Pakistan would close its airspace to India flights. The airspace restrictions for Indian flights were lifted in July after months of suspension imposed in the wake of a standoff with New Delhi earlier this year.

On July 18, Aviation Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan had told a press conference that Pakistan suffered losses of more than $50 million because of airspace restrictions put in place amid violent clashes with India. On the other hand, India's Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri recently told parliament that Indian air firms - Air India, SpiceJet, IndiGo, and GoAir - lost almost $80m because of the closure of Pakistani airspace.

It may be noted here the Indian prime minister had used the airspace to travel to Paris last week, which had raised many questions.

The same development was shared by Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry for information as well.

In a tweet, the minister warned that the 'prime minister was considering a complete closure of air space to India, a complete ban on the use of Pakistan land routes for Indian trade to Afghanistan was also suggested in the cabinet meeting, legal formalities for these decisions are under...