ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority on Thursday announced clearance of 166 Pakistani pilots out of 176, which 10 countries had requested for. According to the CAA, Pakistan received requests from 10 countries namely the UAE, Turkey, Malaysia, Vietnam, Bahrain, Ethiopia, Hong Kong, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait for validation of credentials of 176 Pakistani pilots.

166 of these have been validated as genuine and certified by the CAA Pakistan as having no anomaly. Process for the remaining 10 shall be concluded by next week. Same information has been communicated to respective countries.

Total of 262 pilots were identified as possessing suspicious licenses by the Board of Inquiry and grounded immediately after identification on the instructions of Government of Pakistan.

Cabinet has approved cancellation of the license of 28 pilots, out of these 262 pilots. These 28 pilots will not be able to undertake any flying duties and their licenses stand cancelled after following proper legal procedures, which also involved personal hearings afforded to individual pilots.

The matter was twice deliberated by the Cabinet before the decision. The process of verification regarding 76 pilots has been initiated, while the processing of remaining cases will be initiated shortly as per formal laid down procedures.

The entire process of scrutiny and validation followed by necessary disciplinary action is being closely monitored and personally supervised by Minister for Aviation Ghulam Sarwar.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020