The Pakistan Supreme Court was informed that the national flag carrier, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has cleared 110 pilots out of the 141 whose licences had been suspended in the wake of the fake degrees controversy.

On Monday, senior advocate Salman Akram Raja, representing the PIA, also informed the three-judge apex court bench headed by Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed that the airline had cancelled the licences of 15, while 14 others had been declared to be unfit to fly, Dawn news said in a report.

The development came after the bench asked what steps were taken by the airline to vet the suspended licences and whether the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) was pushing the issue enough to get back the business by verifying the licences.

The scam cam to light after Ghulam Sarwar Khan, the Federal Minister for Aviation, had revealed in August that 262 pilots including 141 of the PIA held fake credentials.

(IANS)