Nearly a third of pilots in Pakistan have fraudulent licenses, government says
Pakistan’s national airline here grounded 150 of its pilots Thursday after the government said nearly a third of the country’s pilots obtained their flying licenses fraudulently. Pakistan’s aviation minister, Ghulam Sarwar Khan, on Wednesday said that 262 Pakistani pilots had faked exams to get their pilot licenses by getting others to sit for their exams and through other abuses of the licensing process. The accused pilots worked for Pakistan International Airways, private domestic Pakistani carriers and some for foreign airlines, he said, announcing the results of an investigation. The names of these pilots weren’t released, leaving confusion in the industry. It isn’t clear where those 112 of them not working at PIA are employed. An aviation ministry official said they were in the process of informing national and foreign regulators in countries where the pilots were thought to work, although he declined to say which countries specifically. PIA wrote to Pakistan’s aviation regulator Thursday asking for official confirmation of the identities of these pilots. The airline believes that 150 of its pilots are deemed by regulators to have suspicious credentials and has stopped those suspected from flying until the airline receives an official list of those accused, airline officials said. “It is a grave concern for us as many out of these 150 pilots must be flying PIA aircraft, which cannot be allowed after disclosure of fake/suspicious licenses scam,” PIA’s CE Arshad Malik, wrote Thursday to the Civil Aviation Authority.<br/>
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Nearly a third of pilots in Pakistan have fraudulent licenses, government says
Pakistan’s national airline here grounded 150 of its pilots Thursday after the government said nearly a third of the country’s pilots obtained their flying licenses fraudulently. Pakistan’s aviation minister, Ghulam Sarwar Khan, on Wednesday said that 262 Pakistani pilots had faked exams to get their pilot licenses by getting others to sit for their exams and through other abuses of the licensing process. The accused pilots worked for Pakistan International Airways, private domestic Pakistani carriers and some for foreign airlines, he said, announcing the results of an investigation. The names of these pilots weren’t released, leaving confusion in the industry. It isn’t clear where those 112 of them not working at PIA are employed. An aviation ministry official said they were in the process of informing national and foreign regulators in countries where the pilots were thought to work, although he declined to say which countries specifically. PIA wrote to Pakistan’s aviation regulator Thursday asking for official confirmation of the identities of these pilots. The airline believes that 150 of its pilots are deemed by regulators to have suspicious credentials and has stopped those suspected from flying until the airline receives an official list of those accused, airline officials said. “It is a grave concern for us as many out of these 150 pilots must be flying PIA aircraft, which cannot be allowed after disclosure of fake/suspicious licenses scam,” PIA’s CE Arshad Malik, wrote Thursday to the Civil Aviation Authority.<br/>
