Pakistan International Airlines will restart flight operations to Europe, the US and UK in February or March following a green signal from the International Civil Aviation Organisation, reported Dawn on Friday.

"We addressed significant safety concerns," Aviation Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan said in a press conference on Thursday.

He termed this announcement "good news" for the beginning of the new year, saying "we hope to resume our flight operations to Europe and the US by February or March this year."

The aviation minister also said in the press conference that direct flights to Central Asian destinations, including Bishkek, Baku and Tashkent will also be introduced.

The ICAO has said Pakistan’s civil aviation regulator has resolved significant safety concerns that arose from a 2020 scandal over fake pilot licences, according to the government authorities.

Following a PIA plane crash in May 2020 in Karachi in which 97 people were killed, Sarwar in a session of National Assembly claimed that 40 per cent of Pakistani pilots had "dubious licenses".

Soon the country grounded 262 airline pilots in June 2020, while Pakistani carriers were restricted from flying to EU states in July the same year when the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) suspended the PIA's authorisation to operate flights to EU member states.

Rumours started circulating that the accused pilots, a vast majority of whom were flying commercial aircrafts, had someone else take their mandatory qualification exams.

Following the scandal, the ICAO asked Pakistan to undertake immediate corrective action and suspend the issuing of any new pilot licences.

During Thursday’s press briefing, the aviation minister also revealed that legal action had been taken against five Pakistani CAA officials following the inquiry launched against the pilots.

A nine-member ICAO committee carried out a 10-day audit in Pakistan, which was concluded in early December.

Pakistan's aviation authority distributed a statement it said came from the ICAO stating: “The Committee determined that the actions taken by Pakistan had successfully resolved significant safety concerns."

"It has withdrawn its objection on significant safety concerns,” a spokesperson for Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority, Saifullah Khan, said, referring to the ICAO.

A representative of the ICAO, a UN aviation agency, was not immediately available for comment.

The Civil Aviation Authority has said it hoped it could resume licensing pilots in February.

PIA issued a statement citing chief executive Arshad Malik as welcoming the ICAO conclusion as a positive development for aviation in Pakistan, which would pave the way for the resumption of PIA flights to Britain and the rest of Europe.