PUTRAJAYA, June 2 -- The Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia (CAAM) is temporarily suspending Pakistani licence holders who are currently employed in Malaysia.
Its chief executive officer, Chester Voo said this followed the statement by Pakistan Aviation Minister, Ghulam Sarwar Khan on the alarming number of Pakistani pilots that held fraudulent licences.
“After an evaluation of all foreign pilots employed in Malaysia and in the interest of the safety and security of Malaysia’s civil aviation, CAAM is temporarily suspending Pakistani licence holders who are currently employed by local operators," Voo said in a statement today.
He said the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (PCAA) had revealed that 262 out of 860 active Pakistani pilots had not sat for the pilot exams and that in total, 40 per cent of them, including inactive ones, held fake licences.
In light of this development, he said a number of countries had announced their decision to ground Pakistani pilots and ban Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) from operating flights in and out of their countries.
Voo said CAAM was currently making all efforts to verify with PCAA on the authenticity of these Pakistani licence holders, adding that the records of the Pakistani licence holders would be reviewed in cooperation between CAAM and PCAA.
"Licence holders that are verified as valid by PCAA will be reinstated immediately," he said.
-- BERNAMA
