The export oriented industrial city of Sialkot had long felt the need of an international passenger and cargo airport. The nearest one was in Lahore which is about 125kms away. The federal government promised the industrialist of Sialkot an international airport but due to lethargy, red-tapism and indifference by the government, no work could be started. Finally, tired of foot-dragging, Sialkot’s industrialists in the late 80’s agreed to build the airport themselves and sought the federal government’s approval. On February 2 2001. approved was granted after a decade of negotiations with the federal government and construction of an international airport at Sialkot for passenger and cargo traffic began. A team of directors were approved, under the chairmanship of Mian Muhammad Riaz (CEO of Dr. Frigz International & three times chairman for SIAL) all of whom placed personal wealth into the project as a primary investment. Each director on the board had previous experience of running sizeable and successful enterprises, therefore they were all selected due to this knowledge. Also, with Rs 5 million of personal investment in the project by each one of them, the directors had a direct stake in its profitability.  On February 26 2001, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the Sialkot Chamber of Commerce & Industry and the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority of Pakistan with the approval of Ministry of Defence for the construction of the international airport in Sialkot.

By March 24 2005, Sialkot International Airport Limited (SIAL) formed under the auspices of the Chamber. On March 26 2005, The first plane landed on the newly constructed Sialkot International Airport runway, that was built to handle a fully loaded Boeing 747 as SIAL future plans involved dealing with heavy aircraft for cargo imports and exports. PIA test flight PK-613 landed at the Sialkot International Airport on oct 20,2007. First and biggest ever international airport constructed in the private sector in Pakistan, at a cost of over Rs 2.6 billion became operational on November 30, 2007.

PIA would start non-stop flight between Sialkot to Manchester, Dubai as well as Haj flights from Sialkot International Airport early in 2008. Airblue & Emirates are expected to operate early 2008.

We, the people, What we can’t achieve if we set our mind to do it. This is an example where people are doing the govt job