RAWALPINDI: As verification of suspected licences of pilots continues, the Aviation Division suspended 15 more pilots on Friday, raising the number of suspended pilots to 93.

The 15 are among the 262 pilots possessing suspicious licences. The licences of 28 others have already been cancelled.

The spokesman for the Aviation Division, Senior Joint Secretary Abdul Sattar Khokhar said a total of 262 pilots were identified as possessing suspicious licences by the Board of Inquiry and grounded immediately after identification on the instructions of the government.

He said the federal cabinet had approved cancellation of the licences of 28 pilots, out of these 262 pilots.

These 28 pilots will not be able to undertake any flying duty and their licences have been cancelled after proper legal procedures under which the pilots were given an opportunity of hearing. The matter was twice deliberated by the cabinet before the decision.

The process of verification of licences of 93 pilots had been initiated while the processing of the remaining 141 cases is expected to be completed within one week.

The spokesman said the entire process of scrutiny and validation followed by necessary disciplinary action was being closely monitored and personally supervised by Minister for Aviation Ghulam Sarwar Khan.

Meanwhile, Serene Air, a private airliner, has stopped paying salary to its pilots and first officers who have been identified as processing ‘suspected’ licences.

The human resource department of the airline informed the pilots and the first officers that they would remain on unpaid status from June 29 till the suspected pilot licence issue was resolved.

Earlier, the Aviation Division had provided a list of 10 pilots of the private airline having suspected licences. Of the 10 pilots three had already left the airline while the remaining had been grounded.

Published in Dawn, July 18th, 2020