A spokesman told media that Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) had suspended 150 pilots after questions were raised about the validity of their Qualification Degrees and licences.
The announcement comes a day after a preliminary investigation into a human error in a PIA plane crash in southern Pakistan last month.
PIA spokesman Abdullah Khan told media sources though phone calls from Karachi, where the crash happened on May 22, '150 of our 434 pilots will be fired staring today.'
'It will completely cripple us. But we can't take the risk with it.'
Thursday's suspension will remain in place until an investigation is carried out to verify the authenticity of the pilots' licenses. The airline will primarily investigate allegations that the pilots did not sit for the exams themselves and sent others instead.
Seventeen pilots were suspended on similar charges in January 2019 following an investigation into a plane crash in the southwestern Pakistani city of Panjgur, Khan said, no one was injured in the incident.
On Wednesday, Pakistani Aviation Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan told parliament that 262 of Pakistan's 860 licensed pilots had suspected fake qualification degrees and licences.
'They (the pilots) did not take the exam themselves. They pay and are replaced by dummy candidates,' Khan said.
On May 22, a PIA Airbus A320 crashed into a residential neighborhood 1.4km (0.9 mi) from Karachi's Jinnah International Airport, killing 98 people.
Khan's preliminary investigation report, released on Wednesday, said the "human error" of the pilots and air traffic controllers was primarily responsible for the crash.
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