Licensing scandal: PIA sacks 17 pilots on cabinet orders

In the wake of Aviation Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan's startling revelations, Pakistan International Airline (PIA) has sacked 17 pilots for having 'dubious' flying licences on the order of the federal cabinet, The Express Tribune learnt on Wednesday.

Sources privy to the development said that 12 captains and five first officers were among the employees fired by the troubled airline. The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has also revoked their licences, they added.

An inquiry launched against 51 out of 101 pilots has been completed, they said. "17 were sacked while the remaining 34 have been issued show-cause notices after their licences were suspended," they added.

Sources further said that the inquiry against the remaining 50 pilots would soon be completed.

Last month, Ghulam Sarwar Khan told the parliament that 262 pilots, out of total 860 in the country, have "suspicious flying licences" and would be grounded immediately.

Later, PIA announced that it will ground a third of its 434 pilots on suspicion they hold “dubious” licences and flying certificates.

Sarwar had said criminal proceedings would also be initiated against pilots with the alleged fake licences as the government could not allow anyone to put the lives of its citizens at risk.

The development came as an inquiry into a PIA crash in May, in which 97 people were killed, pointed to pilots not following procedures. The aviation minister had said that the cockpit voice recorder suggested the pilots were distracted by a conversation about the novel coronavirus.

However, the Pakistan Airlines Pilots Association (PALPA), the union for PIA's pilots, had alleged that the announcement of the "dubious" licence holders was a planned government move against the pilots to cut their headcount.

"The malicious efforts of some at the helm of affairs with a mindset to cut the pilots down to size have resulted in PIA being reduced to an airline on paper," the union said in a statement.

PALPA rejected the government's list of pilots with licences deemed dubious, and pointed out that it was full of discrepancies, demanding a judicial investigation of the matter.