ISLAMABAD: Minister for Aviation Ghulam Sarwar Khan has said Pakistan will file an appeal for the resumption of flight operations in Europe by the end of this month.
Responding to a call attention notice in the Senate, the minister said the suspension of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flights by European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) is not for the first time.
“It was not only my statement on the ill-fated plane crash in Karachi, which led to the suspension but PIA was already under observation by EASA for safety hazards,” he told the Upper House.
The minister said that the European Union and the United Kingdom had imposed ban on PIA flights for six months and the national flag carrier can challenge the ban in two months.
He expressed hope that PIA flight operations to European countries will resume by the end of this year. He said the incumbent government will bring back the lost glory of PIA.
Ghulam Sarwar Khan said pilots’ license verification is being done in the great interest of the organization and the issue will be taken to its logical end. He accused former governments of recruiting employees with dubious and fake degrees in the national airline.
He said that licences of pilots who had sent someone else for examination in their place will also be cancelled. He informed that 28 licenses were cancelled during investigation.
He told the house that 17 pilots and 96 technical staff had been dismissed from service over possession dubious degrees. The minister said that during the investigations, licences of 262 pilots were found dubious.
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