Pakistan’s civil aviation ministry grounded 262 pilots for “dubious” qualifications last month, prompted by a preliminary report into an airliner crash in Karachi in May that found the pilots had failed to follow standard procedures and disregarded alarms. 

That crash killed 97 passengers and crew. 

The ministry had said earlier that Pakistan has a total of 860 pilots, 107 of whom work for foreign airlines, but updated on Thursday in a statement that it had received requests from 10 countries for validation of 176 pilots.

In all, the foreign airlines asked for proof of 176 Pakistani pilot licenses.

Of these, 166 “have been validated as genuine and certified by the CAA (Civil Aviation Authority) Pakistan as having no anomaly”, Aviation Division spokesperson Abdul Sattar Khokhar said in a statement.

The “process for the remaining 10 shall be concluded by next week,” he added.

The 10 airlines asking for proof of valid Pakistani pilots’ licenses were from Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Malaysia, Vietnam, Ethiopia, and Hong Kong, according to the press release. 

Aviation Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan had sent shockwaves through the industry last month by revealing that some 260 pilots had dubious licenses.

About 150 worked for PIA — almost one-third of the airline’s staff of 434 pilots.

A total of 262 pilots were identified as possessing suspicious Licenses by the Board of Inquiry and grounded immediately after identification on the instructions of the Government of Pakistan. Cabinet has approved the cancellation of the license of 28 pilots, out of these 262 pilots. The process of verification regarding 76 pilots has been initiated while the processing of remaining cases will be initiated shortly as per formal laid down procedures.

“The entire process of scrutiny and validation followed by necessary disciplinary action is being closely monitored and personally supervised by” Aviation Minister Khan, the handout emphasized.

The statement comes a day after it emerged that, in what appeared to be a direct contradiction to the aviation minister’s allegation that almost 40 percent of Pakistani pilots possessed ‘fake licenses’, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) had termed all commercial/airline transport pilots licenses (CPL/ATPL) it issued as “genuine and validly issued”.