"The plan was 1,000 feet above the ground... the pilot was approaching the runway visually, and it is always the pilot's decision to land" he clarified.
Addressing the media in Islamabad on Friday, Abbasi said that the factors which led to the crash would only be clear once a complete record had been received. He said that the government wished to make the inquiry public and the investigations will be completed as soon as possible.
Abbasi said that the first priority of ongoing efforts was to hand over dead bodies to the relatives. He said the plane had only completed 34,000 flying hours and that it is normal for such an aircraft.
"We have no reports of terrorism in this crash. Our civil aviation authorities are following international rules. There has never been any incident of violation of these rules" he added.
He said that Captain Pervaiz had more than 25,000 flying hours of experience, and the co-pilot had experience of over 17,000 flying hours.
Abbasi said that the Airbus team had not arrived for investigation as yet, but several aeronautical engineers were present at the site of accident to investigate the matter.
He added that efforts were underway to recover the black box and that it would be decoded in the US as there are only four laboratories in the world that can decode black boxes.
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