Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Thursday summoned the chief executive officers (CEOs) of all the airlines of the country, including prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, to appear in-person before its Karachi Registry on Saturday.

Hearing a suo motu case pertaining to pilots’ fake degrees, a three-member Supreme Court bench comprising Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, Justice Umar Ata Bandial and Justice Ijazul Ahsan, summoned Prime Minister Shadi Khana Abbasi, being CEO, of the Airblue.

At the onset of hearing, when a Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) Director Nasir Ali Shah told the court that premier Abbasi also owns Airblue, the chief justice remarked that whether it was not a matter of clash of interests.

He said premier Abbasi would have to appear in the matter in the capacity of Airblue’s CEO and not the prime minister. He said the case had been pending for the last four months and despite court’s directions, all airlines had not submitted their complete data.

He then issued notices to the CEO’s of all the airlines of Pakistan, which include-Pakistan International Airlines, Shaheen Air International, Serene Air and Airblue.

The CAA’s director stated that PIA, Shaheen Air International and Serene Air had submitted the required data, pertaining to the degrees of pilots and other staff, to the CAA in Karachi. He said data of Airblue’s pilots was received in Karachi on Wednesday.

To a court query, the CAA official stated that the court had directed to verify the data of 1,972 employees of the PIA. He said data of 225 employees had received and out of it 108 degrees had been verified so far, adding that degrees of 24 pilots were found to be faked. Later, the court adjourned the hearing until Saturday, when the matter would be heard at Karachi Registry.

Suo motu on lawyers’ degrees

Meanwhile, the chief justice noted that there were some lawyers who were practicing law on fake degrees, while some others were appearing before the courts without valid licences.

He then took suo motu notice of fake degrees being possessed by some lawyers and directed the bar councils across the country to submit a report on the matter within a month.

The court also issued a notice to the Higher Education Commission, directing it to cooperate with bar councils on the issue of degrees’ verification. The chief justice asked senior lawyer Hamid Khan that whether some lawyers were also practicing law on fake degrees. Hamid Khan then replied in the affirmative and stated that lawyers’ degrees should also be verified.

Published in Daily Times, May 11^th 2018.