KARACHI: The Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) on Friday said that the issue of commercial pilots possessing dubious licences was not exclusive to it.

The national carrier in a tweet said, “These licenses were issued by the competent authority and are valid as per their records”.

“It is the process and discrepancies through which they were obtained (that) triggered the inquiry by the government of Pakistan & action.”

Dubious Pilots Licenses do not pertain to PIA alone. Let it be on record, these licenses were issued by the competent authority and are valid as per their records. It's the process & discrepancies through which they were obtained, triggered the inquiry by GoP & action.

— PIA (@Official_PIA) June 25, 2020

The issue of fake licenses was highlighted by the aviation minister, Ghulam Sarwar, in the National Assembly while presenting the preliminary investigation report on Karachi plane crash incident.

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On Jun 24, Federal Minister for Aviation Ghulam Sarwar Khan had said that the recent Karachi plane crash incident took place because the pilots were not focused and they were discussing coronavirus throughout the travel.

“I heard the conversation of last half an hour through voice recorder and found out that they were discussing coronavirus during travelling as one of the pilots’ family was affected of it,” Ghulam Sarwar had said while speaking during the National Assembly session in Islamabad.