PIA - Tøff ordbruk om falske sertifikater - Curt Lewis

 

EU ban on PIA: Aviation minister refuses to take responsibility

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan may have admitted that the fake pilots issue was mishandled but Aviation Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan has refused to take responsibility for the damage his statement did to the Pakistan International Airline. 

Talking to Shahzeb Khanzada on Geo News’ Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Kay Saath show on Wednesday, the PTI minister downplayed the matter by saying that every airline in the world was suffering losses.

Khanzada interjected that the aviation industry was facing losses due to the coronavirus pandemic. The PIA, on the other hand, is facing bans due to the fake license controversy.

On December 26, the aviation minister told reporters that the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) had been satisfied and the ban would be revoked soon. However, in a letter dated December 24, the EASA had extended the ban and said it would not be reviewed until a safety audit of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) was conducted. 

To this, Ghulam Sarwar Khan said the PIA's report had a satisfactory score of “97.6%” which was considered “great”. But Khanzada stressed that the national carrier may have satisfied the EASA but the ban remained due to the minister’s statements.

“Should we not have taken any action? You should appreciate that someone is taking initiative. Our transparency should be appreciated," said the aviation minister. 

Khanzada added that the attorney general of Pakistan had also admitted before the Islamabad High Court that the issue was mishandled.

It may be mentioned here that the aviation minister first revealed the fake license matter while briefing the Parliament on a plane crash.

Subsequently, the aviation minister announced that the qualifications of 262 pilots in Pakistan are "dubious" and thus they will be barred from flying. He said that a total of 753 pilots are serving in Pakistani airlines, while 107 are serving in foreign airlines bringing the number to 860.

However, further investigations revealed that 182 out of the 262 pilots have valid credentials.