Pakistan to appeal against EASA flight ban soon, announces Ghulam Sarwar  

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Aviation Ghulam Sarwar on Wednesday said that they initiated scrutiny process within Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) after a suo moto notice was taken by the Supreme Court of Pakistan on the matter, ARY NEWS reported.

“658 employees within PIA are found carrying fake degrees,” he said adding that these also include 28 pilots and 96 engineers.

He blamed that all those recruitments were made during the tenure of 2008 to 2010 and said that it was now their responsibility to clean the previous mess.

Ghulam Sarwar announced to appeal against the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) decision to suspend Pakistani flight operations to Europe. “This is not for the first time that flight operation is being suspended,” he said.

He said that they are expelling all pilots who used bribe and illegal means to acquire licenses.

Read More: Cleaning mess of previous govts, says Ghulam Sarwar on pilots issue

“Action is taken against 54 pilots of which 28 are expelled from the service and criminal proceedings will be launched against them,” he said adding that they have also received lists of pilots working abroad and verification of their credentials is ongoing.

It is pertinent to mention here that European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) on Tuesday apprised its third country operators regarding the issue of fraudulent licenses of Pakistani pilots and asked its members states to take action against pilots holding Pakistani licenses.

In a letter written to the third party operators, the EASA said that it is known that approximately 40 percent of the pilots issued licenses by the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority are either falsified or not ICAO complaint.