ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Aviation Ghulam Sarwar Khan has said that the licenses of 262 pilots are ‘suspicious’ or ‘doubtful’, including 141 captains of PIA, 10 captains of Serene Air and 9 captains of Air Blue. Inquiries have been completed against 128 pilots while 148 have been grounded.
Talking to media in Islamabad, he vowed to make Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) the world’s leading airline by 2023, saying the company had verified that licenses of 28 pilots were fake.
Ghulam Sarwar Khan said that all the pilots, who are under inquiry or illegally recruited, were hired before 2018. He clarified that the incumbent government has not made any recruitment either in PIA or in the CAA after coming into power.
He added that the previous Chief Justice of Pakistan took suo moto notices against various departments of PIA, after which the verification process of degrees and licenses was initiated.
He said that by 2019, the verification process included a total of 648 people, including 119 cabin crew, 16 cockpit, 98 in engineering and 415 in the general administration.
