Pakistan to clear cargo carrier AHS Air International

The Pakistani government is reportedly set to dismiss serious allegations against grounded cargo carrier AHS Air International (AHS, Karachi Int’l) after the country’s intelligence agency cleared it, reports Business Recorder, citing sources close to the country’s Secretary of Aviation. Pending approval from the Cabinet, the Minister of Aviation, Ghulam Sarwar Khan, will now consider renewing the airline’s domestic and international air charter licenses, which were suspended on March 21, 2017. This followed after the General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in November 2015 and March 2016 had forwarded anonymous complaints containing certain serious, but undisclosed, allegations against AHS Air International to the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (PCAA), demanding that the carrier’s Air Operator’s Certificate (AOC) be revoked for violating ICAO regulations. The complaint had been forwarded to Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) agency, which on May 4, 2017, had already indicated that “nothing negative (had) surfaced” during their probe. According to the sources, the PCAA has now recommended the renewal of AHS’s domestic and international charter license, after it was greenlighted by the CAA’s Flight Standards, Airworthiness, Finance, and Economic Oversight directorates. The PCAA shared its recommendations with the Cabinet, after clearance by the ISI. AHS’s charter license was first issued in 2011 after it had obtained a No Objection Certificate (NOC) – a legal requirement signifying government authorisation of a business in Pakistan. The carrier had operated one B747-200(FSCD) – AP-BIO (msn 22545), now stored at Bishkek, according to the ch-aviation fleets advanced module. The freighter was subsequently operated by Air Georgia (2015) (AGF, Tbilisi) under the registration 4L-GNL; and by Oscar Jet (OSJ, Chisinau) since 2018 under the registration ER-BAR, the ch-aviation fleets history module reveals. In 2015, Belgian newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws, apparently backed by United Nations sources, had mentioned AHS in unsubstantiated allegations of arms trafficking from Ostend into Libya. However, Belgium’s Service for Federal Public Finances said Belgium customs had checked all 12 registered flights between Ostend and Libya, and that no weapons or ammunition had been found.