Pakistan plans criminal charges against pilots with bogus credentials

Pakistan said Friday it would criminally charge pilots found to have obtained fraudulent flying credentials as the authorities raced to identify those who work for overseas airlines. Detailing the outcome of an investigation, Pakistan said this week that almost one third of its pilots obtained their licenses after committing fraud in their pilot exams, such as by getting others to sit for their exams. Some of the pilots work abroad, the government has said, without releasing details about which pilots, countries or airlines. Ghulam Sarwar Khan, Pakistan’s aviation minister, told a press conference Friday that of the 282 pilots found to have cheated on their pilot exams, 177 were working at four Pakistani airlines. None would be allowed to continue to fly, he said. The airlines have been notified of the names and the pilots grounded, the government said. That left 85 pilots with allegedly falsified credentials working in unidentified places of employment, including foreign airlines, he said. A total of 107 Pakistani pilots work abroad, the government said. “We’re trying to find out where they’re working,” Mr. Khan said of the 85 untraced pilots. “Their credentials aren’t real.”<br/>