Islamabad: Amid a new bonhomie in Indo-Pak relations, Pakistan offered India most favoured nation (MFN) status in the aviation sector and an increase number of civilian flights on reciprocal basis as the first commercial Indian Airlines flight in two years today (Jan 9, 2004) landed in Lahore after resumption of air links between the two countries.

Pakistan's Defence Secretary General (retired) Hamid Nawaz told the media in Karachi that his nation was willing to grant MFN status to India in the civil aviation sector if New Delhi "positively responded in order to step up the fight services to each others countries and to increase destinations as more and more people travelled between the two countries".

He said Pakistan's civil aviation officials in meetings with Indian officials in New Delhi last month had extended the proposal for mutual MFN status in the civil aviation sector and they had agreed in "principle".

Officials of the both countries would further discuss the proposal in future meetings, he said.

After a gap of two years, an Indian Airlines aircraft today undertook its first trip to Pakistan carrying a thin complement of passengers to and from Lahore. The flight, IC-845, took off from Delhi at 13.45 hrs (IST) and reached Lahore past 14.00 hrs. It returned as IC-846 to Delhi at 16.30 hrs.