Insurance company directed to pay claims of Rs3.2 million

President Dr Arif Alvi has rejected three separate representations filed by the State Life Insurance Corporation of Pakistan (SLIC) as maladministration was established on its part in three cases.

The State Life had repudiated insurance claims of the complainants on the ground that the insurance policyholders had pre-insurance ailments which they had willfully hidden at the time of obtaining the policy, a President House statement said on Wednesday.

The president directed SLIC to pay insurance claims of over Rs3.2 million to three complainants and report compliance to Wafaqi Mohtasib within 30 days. The president gave these directions while rejecting three separate representations filed by SLIC against the decisions of the Wafaqi Mohtasib.

Samina Shahzadi, Muhammad Mehfooz, and Seeta (the complainants) stated that their family members had obtained insurance policies from SLIC worth Rs2.9 million, Rs198,290, and Rs192,000 respectively. After the deaths of policyholders, the SLIC refused to pay the death insurance claims to complainants. Feeling aggrieved, the complainants separately approached the Wafaqi Mohtasib, which passed orders in their favour. The SLICP then filed separate representations with the president against the decisions of the Mohtasib, which he also rejected.

In the case of Samina Shahzadi, President Alvi observed that her deceased husband (Muhammad Saeed Ahmed) had died due to COVID-19, as reported by ABWA Hospital and Research Centre, Faisalabad, and not due to the pre-insurance ailment of a brain tumour as claimed by the SLIC.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 4^th, 2023.