India approves use airspace by Imran Khan's plane to reach Sri Lanka directly

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India has approved to use the airspace by Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan. Imran, who is leaving for Sri Lanka on Tuesday will now be able to reach Sri Lanka directly. If India does not allow airspace to be used, then the Emraan plane has to travel a long way to Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka has already canceled Imran Khan's proposed speech in Parliament. There was a lot of debates happening Pakistani regional media's regarding the issue and it was alleged that Sri Lanka did this under pressure from India.

In 2019, Pakistan refused to open its airspace for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's flights. Then PM Modi was supposed to go to America and Saudi Arabia. Pakistan attributed the alleged human rights violation in Kashmir. Whereas VVIP aircraft are generally permitted. India had complained to the International Civil Aviation Organization. After two years, India could have refused to allow Emraan's aircraft to enter the airspace, but it did not. Imran Khan is to meet Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa in Colombo. Apart from this, he will also participate in an investor conference. He was scheduled to address the Parliament of Sri Lanka on 24 February. However later there were reports in Sri Lankan media that it was canceled.

Sri Lanka's Daily Express quoted Foreign Secretary Jayanath Kolambage as saying that Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abewardena had requested the cancellation of the address in view of Covid-19. However, the same newspaper quoted unnamed sources as saying that there were elements within the Sri Lankan government who did not want Imran to speak because he feared that doing so would worsen relations with India, because Relations are already in a tussle with the cancellation of a deal at the East Container Terminal in Colombo Port. There was speculation that Khan would raise the issue of Kashmir during his speech, which could upset India. The Pakistani media created a lot of outrage over this aspect.

Another speculation was that the government in Sri Lanka was concerned that Khan might speak out for the rights of Muslims who have suffered abuse at the hands of the Buddhist majority, anti-Muslim sentiments and increased governmental actions. In addition, the Sri Lankan government made cremation mandatory for Muslims who died of Covid-19 in the country. However, the government freed the Muslims from the cremation earlier this month and they were opposed to the issue globally. Later allowed to bury and Khan had welcomed the decision of the Sri Lankan government.