CAA validates licenses of 166 Pakistani pilots as ‘genuine’ and ‘certified’

The Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has confirmed that it has received requests from 10 countries for the verification of licenses of Pakistani pilots.

The countries namely, United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Malaysia, Vietnam, Bahrain, Ethiopia, Hong Kong, Oman, Qatar, and Kuwait had asked for the details of 176 pilots who had received licenses from the operator in Pakistan.

The CAA informed that as many as 166 out of 176 licenses have been validated as genuine and certified so far, adding that the clearance process of the remaining 10 licenses shall be completed by next week.

The CAA spokesperson stated that 262 pilots had been grounded over the directives of the Pakistani government over the issue of suspected licenses and that the federal cabinet members had approved the suspension of licenses of 28 pilots, which will not be able to undertake any flying duties and their licenses stand canceled.

Moreover, the concerned authorities have commenced an action against 76 pilots. The CAA spokesperson said that the aviation minister Ghulam Sarwar is personally supervising the matter related to the dubious licenses.

Earlier, CAA confirmed the Civil Aviation Authority of Oman (CAAO) that none of the pilot licenses are fake and all CPL/ATPL pilot licenses are genuine and validly issued, making aviation minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan's statement about the licenses of 262 pilots controversial.

CAA in its letter stated that the federal government immediately took notice and embarked upon the process of verifying the credentials of all licensed pilots through forensic scrutiny when some concerns were raised about the validity of the licenses of some pilots.