Pakistan’s national carrier terminates 50 staffers over fake degrees

Muscat: Pakistan’s national carrier, Pakistan International Airline (PIA) recently terminated 50 cabin crew staff, including three pilots for possessing fake degree certificates.
In an online statement, Pakistan’s state television said, "According to the spokesperson of PIA, 50 cabin crew staff, including both men and women have been dismissed from their job immediately on the basis of fake degrees.”
Earlier this year in January, Saqib Nisar, Chief Justice of Pakistan, had taken notice of the alleged appointment of pilots holding fake qualifications and notified Pakistan’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) for completing the verifications of the degrees of pilots.
In view of the proceedings of Supreme Court of Pakistan against pilots and cabin crew holding fake degrees and certificate, the Director General of CAA Hassan Baig issued directives to suspend their licences with immediate effect.
According to the official statement, Baig also issued directives to suspend the licences of all those pilots and cabin crews who have not yet submitted their degrees and certificates.
“Their licences will remain suspended till they submit their referred documents for verification,” the official statement read.
Talking to Times of Oman exclusively, Mohammed Zaeem, General Secretary of Pakistan Social Club Oman said that the quality assurance department and higher education commission in Pakistan are doing an incredible job in verifying fake degrees and certificates.
“With the recent developments in Information Technology and resource development, it has been made possible to scrutinise and verify documents, that I personally believe wouldn’t have been possible previously. Credit goes to quality assurance departments and higher education commission who have done an exceptional job in the recent past to validate degrees, documents and certificates. This indeed has created a positive image of degrees issued by educational institutions in Pakistan.”
Zaeem added that possessing a fake degree or a certificate is an individual act and we can’t judge any particular organisation or system based on that. “Possessing a forged degree is in fact an individual act and has been observed all over the world where people have deceived their employers. But, thankfully the system in Pakistan is improving and the authorities are on track to identify the con artist.”