Fake pilots saga

The Senate has revived debate over the fake pilot scandal that caused severe reputational harm to PIA, Pakistani pilots and the local aviation industry in general. A panel of the upper house has called for reinstating all 82 pilots who were suspended amid the scandal. The embarrassing situation emerged in the aftermath of the crash of PIA’s flight PK-8303 in Karachi in May 2020. Then-Aviation Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan claimed that about one-third of Pakistani pilots have fake licences, an astoundingly high number in any high-skill profession. A probe later showed the number was actually much lower — less than 10% of the 860 pilots in the country had problems with their credentials, and not all of these were outright “fake” qualifications.

Sarwar’s jumping the gun led to PIA flights to Europe being banned, several PIA flights being grounded due to pilot suspensions, and some overseas Pakistani trainers being wrongly suspended or fired. It is anyone’s guess why he did so, but some pilots claimed it was to divert attention from the government and CAA failings. Whatever the case, government functionaries must be aware of the consequences of their actions and not just blurt things out. This is also the case for the senators, who are more focused on getting the pilots their jobs back and less on making sure their qualifications are in order. People who use fake credentials to get jobs that let them risk people’s lives deserve punishment. The pilots should only be welcomed back into the fold if they meet all requirements.

It is also worth noting Sarwar himself was the focus of a long-running fake degree scandal. He allegedly used a fake degree to run in the 2002 election, and another, separate degree — which was also allegedly fake — for the 2008 elections. The case ran for several years and Sarwar was given a ministry despite still being under investigation. It was only dropped in early 2019, a few months after the PTI came to power, due to lack of “documentary proof”, even though both universities had declared his degrees fake.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 8^th, 2023.

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