Pakistan's national carrier, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), has come under heavy criticism for an ad that shows a jetliner flying over the Eiffel Tower, although many viewers thought the image reminded them of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center. I felt that it was unpleasant and reminiscent of .
The ad carries the message “Paris is coming today” and urges one social media user: wonDare“Is this propaganda or blackmail?”
Some of this criticism came from Pakistanis who couldn't believe their eyes after seeing the national airline's horribly false advertising.
“Didn't the idiot who designed this graphic see the PIA plane heading for the Eiffel Tower?” One of Europe's iconic landmarks? ” I gasped Omar Quraishi is a newspaper columnist and former media advisor to politician Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.
Quraishi had a long list of follow-up questions, including: “Didn't the airline's management look into this?” “Didn’t they know that PIA is a state-owned airline often accused of supporting terrorism?”
Pakistan is also where U.S. special forces were hiding Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of 9/11 and al-Qaeda boss. I got caught with him In 2011.
The ad quickly racked up 21 million views on social media platform X, but received little applause. PIA, either somehow blissfully unaware of the controversy or determined to weather the storm, had not removed the controversial post as of Thursday afternoon. Some of the airline's critics said they were convinced PIA knew exactly what it was doing by using provocative images to glean social media engagement. There are some too.
The ostensible purpose of this ad is to announce the resumption of PIA flights to Europe following the 2020 ban imposed by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), as explained in small print at the bottom. It was to do.
What was prohibited was imposed One month after a PIA Airbus A-320 crashed on a Karachi road, killing 100 people. Subsequent investigations led to accusations that up to a third of PIA's pilots were flying with forged licenses. Before this horrific incident, the airline was plagued by poor safety, poor management, and dodgy finances.
EASA announced in November that it would lift the ban on PIA, but it remains banned. Prohibited He refrained from flying in the UK and US due to concerns about his pilot qualification.
Pakistan Finance Minister Isaac Dar called He called the ad “ridiculous” and said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had ordered an investigation.
