ISLAMABAD: After almost two years Pakistan has finally reeled out of bad times for relations with world aviation community as International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) has cleared it of its safety and regulation concerns.
ICAO’s letter addressed to director general Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (PCAA), Khaqan Murtaza said “During the audit, the ICAO team reviewed corrective measures taken by PCAA and related evidence presented by Pakistan to address the SSC concerns regarding the licensing system, especially in relation to the exams conducted by PCAA and by delegated or designated training organizations prior to issuance of licenses and on their basis ICAO has concluded that Pakistan has addressed all concerns raised by it in September 2020 and it can now conduct exams and issue licenses to the pilots and ground staff ”
According to a Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (PCAA) official, ICAO on Wednesday informed to PCAA authorities through its letter dated January 4, 2022 that in light of its audit conducted by ICAO team, it was fully satisfied with its standars of safety operations (SoPs) and systems put in place at its airports for safety of the passengers.
The PCAA official said “IACO only deals with standards and regulations relating to airports safety and its clearance to Pakistan CAA is a very important development as it would help Pakistan address concerns
of other organisations like Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of US, CAA of UK and European Union which had banned Pakistan International Airline (PIA) from flying from into their respective areas”.
“ICAO’s clearance has nothing to do with ban on PIA to fly to any destination in Europe, US and UK”, The PCAA official clarified.
After surfacing of the fake licenses issues in 2020, ICAO had banned PCAA to conduct exams and issue licenses to the pilots and field staff working at all Pakistani airports. Since ICAO is a United Nations (UN) organization its punitive action resulted in banning PIA by almost all international civil aviations including European Union Civil Aviation, FAA of US and CAA of United Kingdom.
Banning of PIA proved extremely damaging as it not only grounded PIA, the world best airline, but also eroded credibility of Pakistan in world civil aviation industry. It also risked the future of new Pakistani young generation which had dreamed to fly and become the best of the best stuff of the world civil aviation industry. Since banning in 2020, hundreds of young Pakistanis who had completed their study in civil aviation and got training at flying clubs and paid millions as fee are sitting idle and waiting for getting licenses to start their future.
ICAO’s permission to PCAA is a good news for Pakistan. It sets a stage for Pakistan to negotiate with European Union, US, UK and other countries to remove ban on PIA.
