Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Tuesday said two Pakistani pilots served PIA, the national flag career, for several years on fake degrees.
Kashan Aijaz Dodhy and Mohsin Ali, who were inducted into Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) in 1995 and 2006, respectively, were booked in 2022 after an audit revealed a good number of PIA employees were appointed based on fake degrees.
During the investigation, the FIA found the degrees of both pilots fake.
Dodhy and Ali quit the PIA in 2019 and 2014, respectively.
A case was initiated against both pilots, air hostess Nazia Naheed, and data operator Arif Tarar for getting jobs in PIA with fake degrees.
“All four on Monday confessed to furnishing fake degrees to get appointed or promoted in the PIA before the special court of FIA,” an official said.
The accused also confessed to their crimes in their statements.
Judge Tanveer Ahmad Sheikh ordered the imprisonment of all of them “till the rising of the court” and a fine of different amounts.
In 2020, then aviation minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government, bringing humiliation to the country, disclosed that Pakistani pilots had “dubious licences”.
He alleged that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) recruited 658 employees, including pilots and engineers, with fake academic degrees and dubious licences between 2008 and 2018.
The minister’s statement alerted the international aviation agency and several foreign airlines grounded Pakistani-origin pilots.
The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and UK authorities also stopped the PIA from flying to Europe.
