ISLAMABAD, June 26 (APP):Minister for Aviation Ghulam Sarwar Khan on Friday said inquiries of 28 pilots, flying with fake licences, had been completed and their flying permits would be terminated after getting approval from the Federal Cabinet in next meeting.
“The whole inquiry process of 28 pilots, who had dubious licences, have been completed. Nine of them have confessed of having fake credentials.
The licence issuing authority is Civil Aviation Authority, but the termination can only be done by the Federal Government. So, the Federal Cabinet’s approval will be needed in this regard,” he said here while addressing a news conference.
The minister said in all the cases, the codal formalities, including issuance of show cause notices, charge sheets and holding personal hearings, had been completed in a transparent manner.
Besides, legal experts were being consulted to initiate criminal proceedings against the fake licence holder pilots, he added.
Currently, he said, there were 860 pilots and 262 of them had suspicious licences, which they had got in the tenures of previous governments.
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government had not inducted any employee neither in the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) nor in the Aviation Division, he added.
“This all trash is of the previous governments, starting from 2010 to the caretaker setup of 2018. The masses have given the mandate to the PTI government to clean all this mess, which requires a major surgery.”All these pilots and recruits against whom the inquiry had been conducted, were inducted before 2018.
After coming into power, the PTI government neither made any recruitment in the PIA and the Aviation Division nor held any exam,” the minister said.
He said the fake licence issue had a negative impact for the country.
However, to save the life of a patient, he had to undergo a major surgery, radiation and chemo process. “So, we started a reformation process in the PIA, and trying to undo the wrongdoings we inherited from the previous governments.”
Sarwar said during the previous government, the Supreme Court in a suo moto case had directed to verify the degrees of the employees of PIA’s different departments. Accordingly, the process was started, in which 648 employees, including 119 cabin crew members, 16 cockpit crew members, 98 from the engineering department and 415 general administration staffers, were identified having fake credentials.
The verification of pilots’ documents was the continuation of the process started on the SC directives, he said, adding the number of total commercial pilots serving in Pakistan was 753, while 107 Pakistani pilots were serving in foreign airlines.
Out of 753 pilots, 450 were associated with the PIA, 87 with Airblue, 47 with Serene Air, and 101 with chartered flights, private airlines and flying clubs, while 68 were with ex-Shaheen Airline, he added.
“The number of under question pilots was 262, out of them 141 in the PIA, nine in Airblue, 10 in Serene Air, 17 in ex-Shaheen and 85 in others,” he said.
Out of the suspicious licence holder pilots, the minister said, some 121 were with one bogus paper, 39 with two bogus papers, 21 with three bogus papers, 15 with four bogus papers,11 with five bogus papers, 11 with six bogus papers, 10 with seven bogus papers and 34 with all (eight) bogus papers.
The aviation minister said there were two types of flying licences – Commercial Pilot Licence (CPL) and Airline Transport Pilot Licences (ATPL).
He said the lists of all suspicious licence holder pilots had been sent to their respective airlines so that they could not fly.
A list of 141 such pilots, with all relevant details, had been sent to PIA Chief Executive, nine-pilot list to Airblue, and 10-pilot list to Serene Air that they (pilots) had no more permission to fly, he said, adding remaining pilots were being located that they were working with which airline. “All details have been placed on official website of the CAA.”
Sarwar said five CAA officials, including two senior joint directors (licencing) Asiful Haq and Faisal Mansoor Ansari, Senior Superintendent (HR) Abdul Raees, besides two assistants Grade-II (Admin)
Khalid Javed and Sayed Adeel Aftab, had also been suspended for their alleged involvement in issuing of fake licences.
He said inquiries had been initiated against them, while legal experts were being consulted about also taking up the matter with the Federal Investigation Agency under the criminal inquiry procedure.
Sarwar said some staffers from the IT department were also involved in the forgery, who were being questioned, adding three-four people were from the outside. “Their names have also been forwarded to the departments concerned.”
The minister said the PTI government was committed to restructuring of the PIA so that the national flag-carrier could regain its past glory. “An extensive reformation process has been initiated in the organization.”
Currently, he said, the national flag-carrier was consisted of 31-aircraft fleet, which would be taken to 45 by year 2023 under the PIA Business Plan.