Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday ordered an investigation into how the country’s national airline approved an advertisement with an illustration that many on social media said was uncomfortably similar to imagery from Sept. 11, 2001.
The advertisement, by the state-run Pakistan International Airlines, or PIA, was meant to be a celebratory announcement that it was resuming flights to Paris.
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ut the ad – featuring an image of an aircraft pointed toward the Eiffel Tower with the caption “Paris, we’re coming today” – drew swift condemnation after its release late last week. “Pakistan air needs a new graphic designer,” Ian Bremmer, a political scientist, said. Omar Quraishi, a newspaper columnist, said the advertisement had left him speechless.
“Do they not know about the 9/11 tragedy – which used planes to attack buildings,” he wrote on X. Pakistan has some connections to the Sept 11 attacks on New York City and the Pentagon.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, accused of being the 9/11 mastermind, was arrested in Pakistan in 2003. Osama bin Laden, al-Qaida chief, was killed by US forces in Pakistan in 2011. It is the latest setback for PIA, which has been battling financial losses.
