Bhoja Air crash: Court calls for defence and interior secretaries’ replies

Some of the victims’ families demanded an independent investigation.


Obaid Abbasi May 26, 2013
Some of the victims’ families demanded an independent investigation. PHOTO: REUTERS/FILE

ISLAMABAD:


Almost nine months after the case was filed, the families of Bhoja Air crash victims can at least count on being heard after the Islamabad High Court (IHC) took up the matter on Friday.


On April 20, 2012, Bhoja Air Flight 213 crashed in the outskirts of Islamabad, killing all 127 passengers and crew members.

After this incident, seven victims’ families had approached the IHC and sought an independent inquiry of the incident.

Now there is hope for the family members as Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui took up their petitions and directed the defence and interior secretaries, Bhoja Air Chairman Farook Omar Bhoja, the capital’s police chief, the Capital Development Authority chief, Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences administrator and directors general of Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and National Disaster Management Authority to submit their replies on June 2.

Their petitions had been pending since September 25, 2012. Justice Riaz Ahmed Khan had issued notices to all the respondents and sought their replies. However, the respondents had failed to submit them.

Subsequently, the petitioners had filed an early hearing application which was finally taken up.

During the course of Friday’s hearing, Advocate Farouk Adam Khan, counsel for the petitioners, requested the court to order an independent inquiry to determine the actual cause of the plane crash. Khan informed the court that the CAA had not initiated an independent inquiry even a year after the incident.

The airline has not compensated the victims’ families, he stated. “As per provision of Carriage by Air Act, 2012, every victim’s family member is entitled to be paid Rs5 million.”

It is noted that then prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani had constituted a three-member commission to probe the matter, but the commission has not yet made its findings public.

Muhammad Tariq, one of the petitioners, told The Express Tribune, “The respondents cannot cheat the court. During the next hearing, they will come up with their replies or they will face the music,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 26th, 2013.

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