All these pilots and recruits against whom the inquiry had been conducted.

'All these pilots and recruits against whom the inquiry had been conducted, were inducted before 2018. After coming into power, the PTI government neither made any recruitment in the PIA and the Aviation Division nor held any exam,' the minister said.

He said the fake licence issue had a negative impact for the country. However, to save the life of a patient, he had to undergo a major surgery, radiation and chemo process. 'So, we started a reformation process in the PIA, and trying to undo the wrongdoings we inherited from the previous governments.'

Sarwar said during the previous government, the Supreme Court in a suo moto case had directed to verify the degrees of the employees of PIA's different departments. Accordingly, the process was started, in which 648 employees, including 119 cabin crew members, 16 cockpit crew members, 98 from the engineering department and 415 general administration staffers, were identified having fake credentials.

The verification of pilots' documents was the continuation of the process started on the SC directives, he said, adding the number...