Justice delayed: Injured journalist wins compensation case

Petitioner was hurt during the Jinnah hospital blast on Feb 5, 2010.

KARACHI:

A newspaper journalist filed a constitutional petition in the Sindh High Court, seeking government compensation that was promised to him for his injury on duty.

The petitioner, Syed Jaffer Abbas Jafri, was injured in a bomb blast outside the Jinnah hospital’s emergency on February 5, 2010. He had gone to the public hospital to report on the victims of an attack that took place half an hour earlier during the Chehlum procession.

He maintains that the provincial government announced Rs500,000 in compensation for the heirs of the deceased and Rs100,000 for the injured. Besides his injury, the petitioner had to have many tests done from different hospitals. He also lost his cell phone, his camera and other valuables and he has not been compensated for despite assurances from the ministry of information, Jafri submitted.

During Wednesday’s hearing, a police inspector submitted a report affirming that the petitioner was injured and he had also lost valuables as did other reporters.

The Sindh additional advocate-general, representing the provincial government, said that after the police report, it has been established that the petitioner’s case is genuine and if the court orders, the government will pay him the compensation.

The SHC division bench comprising Chief Justice Mushir Alam and Justice Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi, allowing the petition, said the government shall honour its commitments and promises. Let the compensation in terms of policy be paid to the petitioner, it was ordered.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 28^th, 2011.