Scandal of Pakistani pilots’ having dubious licences has resulted in international lashback. In the latest addition, the United States transport authority has revoked the permission granted to the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) for its special direct flights operation.
As per media reports, the permit was revoked “due to recent events identified by the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority that are of serious concern to aviation safety, specifically matters pertaining to the proper certification of certain Pakistani pilots.”
A PIA spokesperson said that the national carrier airline had been notified of the permission being withdrawn via email.
It is pertinent to note that the U.S. Department of Transportation in April had allowed PIA to operate twelve direct flights to the country to repatriate people stranded due to novel coronavirus out of which the airline had operated six flights to different destinations in the U.S.
Pakistan aviation, national carrier and everyone was happy and it was like a historic day when for the first time Pakistan’s national flag carrier operated direct flights to the U.S. but now all hopes are diminished for quite some time.
PIA spokesperson, Abdullah Hafeez said, “It is a setback for us. However we are keeping very close coordination with the U.S. Department of Transportation and we sincerely hope that with the reformative process already underway, they will review their decision to revoke the permissions.”
The latest bans are closely connected with the disclosure by Federal Minister for Aviation, Ghulam Sarwar Khan in parliament last month that 150 PIA pilots had ‘dubious’ licences.
The aviation regulators of several other countries including Malaysia while British aviation and European countries aviation authorities have asked verification of credentials of Pakistani pilots working there.
On the other hand, Pakistan Airlines Pilots Association (Palpa) had said that there are discrepancies in the government’s list of pilots with licences deemed dubious and has demanded a judicial investigation.
