FIA arrests six CAA officers, pilot over fake licences

The Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) Corporate Crime Circle on Friday completed an inquiry into the fake pilot licences case and arrested six officers of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and a pilot, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

FIA Deputy Director Rauf Sheikh said six CAA officers and one pilot, Saqlain Ali, have been taken into custody. He said the arrested CAA officers included Director Licensing Khalid Mahmood, Senior Joint Director Faisal Manzoor, Senior Joint Director Asiful Haq, Additional Director Licensing Mahmood Hussain, Senior Superintendent HR Abdul Raees. 

Besides this, a private person, 40 pilots and eight government employees have also been nominated in three cases. The Agency said that pilots had received licences through fake examination.

Earlier, Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Gulzar Ahmed had taken notice of fake licences awarded to pilots in Pakistan and sought reply from CAA, stating that fake licences were issued to pilots for money.

It is to be mentioned here that in total, licences of 262 pilots were said to be fake, against which PIA CEO Air Marshal Arshad Malik had summoned his legal and flight operations teams to decide upon appropriate course of action.

The government had also decided to take stern action against all pilots who have been flying aircraft on fake licences. The CAA had sought a list of these pilots to immediately ground them till the completion of the inquiry.

Out of 400 PIA pilots, 150 captains were found to have obtained fake licences.