Pakistan's Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and heads of all Pakistani airlines were summoned by Chief Justice Saqib Nisar on Thursday in a case pertaining to fake degrees of pilots.

The Chief Justice said that Abbasi "will have to appear in the court in the capacity of the Chief Executive Officer of Pakistan's Airblue Limited airline and not as the Premier", Dawn online reported.

The judge said he was issuing notices to heads of all Pakistani airlines as the matter had been pending for the last four months.

He directed the heads of Pakistan International Airlines, Serene Air and Shaheen Air International apart from Airblue Limited to appear before the bench.

During the hearing, Civil Aviation Authority Director Nasir Ali Shah told the court that the authority received on Thursday the reports on pilots' degrees from Shaheen International Airline and Serene Air in Karachi, while the report of Airblue was received on Wednesday.

Talking about Pakistan International Airlines, Shah said that degrees of 1,972 people were verified while 24 pilots were found to be holding fake degrees.

During the hearing, the Chief Justice took a suo motu notice of lawyers holding fake degrees and sought a report on the issue form all bar councils within a month.