Punjab police had arrested Captain Asmat Mehmood from his residence in Karachi last week after a medical report found he was intoxicated and worn out during the NL-142 Karachi to Lahore flight.
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At least 10 people were injured in the airplane’s crashlanding.
Mahmood was arrested after Shaheen Airlines flight NL-142 skidded off the runway and its tyres burst as it landed at the airport on November 3, injuring seven passengers.
The daily said that “it is about time that lapses in security of passengers are punished with the seriousness that it deserves”.
The aircraft of the Pakistani private airlines carrying 121 passengers including seven crew members was coming from Karachi.
A case has been registered against the pilot under different clauses of Pakistan Penal Code for putting the lives of 121 people in danger.
Pervez George, a spokesman for Pakistan’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), told AFP on Saturday that “the medical investigation reports of cockpit crew just after the incident revealed that the pilot in command had an unacceptable level of blood alcohol”.
CAA has stated that it will conduct medical checkups on cabin crew in addition to pilot crew whereas aviation’s airport doctors will also be able to conduct medical checkups.
The pilot had consumed more than the permitted amount of blood alcohol and had not rested the required hours before the flight, said the CAA spokesman.
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“A case was filed at the Sarwar Road Police Station against the pilot under Section 7 of the ATA”, Lahore’s Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Operations Dr Haider Ashraf said.
