THE Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia (CAAM) is temporarily suspending Pakistani pilot licence holders who are currently employed with local carriers, pending the verification of their licences.

The suspension comes following a revelation by the Pakistani aviation minister, Ghulam Sarwar Khan, on the alarming number of Pakistani pilots holding fraudulent licenses.

“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,” CAAM chief executive officer Capt Chester Voo said in a statement.

Voo added that the aviation authority is currently making all efforts to verify the authenticity of licences held by the license holders with the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (PCAA).

“Licence holders who are verified as valid by PCAA will be reinstated immediately,” Voo said.

“The records of the Pakistani licence holders will be reviewed in cooperation between CAAM and PCAA,” he added.

According to PCAA, 40% of pilots, including inactive ones, had fake licences, while 262 of the 860 active Pakistani pilots had not sat for the pilot exams themselves.

Several countries have since decided to ground Pakistani pilots and ban Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) from operating flights in and out of their countries.

CAAM did not reveal the number of Pakistanis licence holders working for local operators. – July 2, 2020.