KARACHI: The Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) on Saturday dismissed four captains among 50 officials from service over holding fake degrees.

According to the details, the national flag carrier on the direction of the apex court took action against the employees holding fake degrees and sacked 50 officials, including four pilots and cabin crew.

Sources said that two of the sacked pilots had been flying Boeing 777 aircraft, one airbus A-320 and one ATR plane.

The PIA spokesperson said that the airline had launched a large-scale drive to verify the degrees of all the officials in the department and found that the 50 officials had submitted the fake degrees.

Whereas the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has directed to cancel the licenses of all the pilots holding fake degrees.

The CAA spokesperson said that above a dozen cabin crew licenses have been cancelled over fake degrees. He warned that those officials who will not submit their degrees will be considered fake and they will cancel their licenses.

The CAA also launched investigations against the pilots who received lenience without passing the exam.

Read More: CAA report reveals five PIA pilots are not even ‘matriculates’

It is pertinent to mention here that a Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) report, on December 28, had  revealed that at least five pilots of Pakistan International Airline (PIA) do not even hold a matriculation certificate.

According to details, a case pertaining to fake degrees of PIA pilots was heard by a Supreme Court bench under the stewardship of Chief Justice Main Saqib Nisar at the Lahore registry of the apex court.

A report was submitted by the CAA to the court, which highlighted that degrees of seven pilots were found to be bogus, while five pilots had not even passed matriculation examination.