The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Wednesday arrested a pilot for holding a fake licence, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

The FIA officials said Fahad Sultan, who had already been nominated in fake licence case, was arrested from Islamabad International Airport when he was about to flee to the UK.

They further said that Sultan would soon be shifted to Karachi following his arrest.

In a major development on December 20, 2020, the federal government had admitted in writing that the licences of only 50 pilots were cancelled out of the 262 which had been earlier declared suspicious.

The federal government submitted this reply before the Islamabad High Court (IHC) in the petition filed by a pilot against the cancellation of his licence and termination of service.

According to the reply, the FIA is holding an inquiry against the bogus pilots and the criminal proceedings will possibly start soon.

It also said that the aviation secretary had initially ordered an inquiry against the 262 pilots whose licences were declared suspicious. However, 50 licences were found to be bogus with the remaining 212 cleared.

The reply came following Aviation Minister Ghulam Sarwar’s statement after the May 22 PIA plane crash in Karachi that the licences of 262 pilots were fake.