Not that I have any immediate plans involving air travel in Pakistan...

[oursin]

Perilous journeys: aviation in Pakistan: Few board a plane these days with complete confidence in the systems intended to keep them safe:

The airlines would often appeal against regulators by going to friends in the government or in Pakistan's powerful military. "Sometimes they could get away with things that were less than ideal," the former official says.

When I was bopping around Pakistan in '78 on the state airline, the pilots' spiel would include the routine line that 'We shall arrive in [Karachi/Quetta/Rawalpindi/Lahore/etc], insh'allah, at [scheduled time of arrival]'.

It was vaguely worrying then: it would be even more worrying now.