Pakistan investigating national airline ad criticized for evoking Sept. 11 terror attacks: Is this a threat???

Pakistan’s Prime Minister has ordered an official investigation into the country’s national airline over an advertisement widely criticized for evoking the Sept.11 terror attacks.Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) published the advertisement last week with an image of a plane flying toward the Eiffel Tower — eerily similar to photographs of the planes heading straight into Manhattan’s Twin Towers in 2001.“Paris, we’re coming today,” the ad also said in announcing resumed flights to the French capital, but taken by many as having an ominous double meaning.The ad went wildly viral, with more than 21 million views on X — many from critics who condemned it.“Is this a threat???” asked Parik Patel, a doctor with more than 700,000 followers.“Pakistan air needs a new graphic designer,” Ian Bremmer, a political scientist and author, wrote on Threads.Omar R.

Quraishi, a newspaper columnist and former political adviser, said the advertisement left him “truly speechless.”“Do they not know about the 9/11 tragedy — which used planes to attack buildings,” Mr.Quraishi wrote on X.Pakistani’s finance minister, Ishaq Dar, confirmed during a parliamentary session this week that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif “has directed [authorities] to investigate who conceived this ad,” according to The Guardian.Pakistan does have connections to the Sept.

11 attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people.Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the attacks, was arrested in Pakistan in 2003. Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaida, was discovered hiding out in Pakistan when he was killed by US forces in 2011.PIA has not yet commented on the scandal since the ad was first posted on X on Jan.10.The airline resumed flights to France following a decision by the European Union’s aviation safety agency to lift a four-year ban over safety standards, which was imposed in 2020 after 97 people died when a PIA plane crashed in southern Pakistan....