Pakistan: 7 PIA pilots suspended for having fake academic degrees, after the matter reached SC

December 31, 2018:

On Saturday, Pakistan's Civil Aviation Authority suspended the licences of 7 pilots of Pakistan International Airlines after they were found to have bogus academic degrees.

Five of them have not even cleared matriculation, the Supreme Court was told.

An officer at the state-run airline company told the court that 50 employees have been suspended for not furnishing their degrees.

Civil Aviation Authority Director General Hassan Baig issued the suspension orders after the court started proceedings against pilots and cabin crew with fake academic credentials.

"Their licences will remain suspended till they submit their referred documents for verification," the aviation authority said in a press statement.

In an earlier hearing, Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar had ordered the state-run company to submit a list of its all 498 pilots along with the result of their licence examination.

The Civil Aviation Authority told the court on Saturday that it was finding it difficult to verify the academic degrees of the employees as a few educational institutions were not cooperating.

The authority's counsel said 207 such cases have not been verified yet, and sought more time from the court. The judges accepted the request, and posted the matter for hearing on Jan 9.

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