Kallar Kahar tragedy: Schoolchildren’s families to get extra cash relief

SC orders raise in compensation; 7 officials booked.

ISLAMABAD:

The Supreme Court handed down instructions on Tuesday for the enhancement of compensation paid to the families of the 34 schoolchildren who died in the Kallar Kahar bus accident on September 26.

A two-judge bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and Justice Khilji Arif Hussain issued this instruction while hearing a suo motu case in which 34 schoolchildren from Faisalabad’s Millat Grammar School, its headmaster Muhammad Hafeez Anwar and the driver and conductor were killed.

The bench asked Attorney General Maulvi Anwarul Haq, Prosecutor General Punjab Ashtar Ausaf and the Advocate General Punjab to make joint efforts for the purpose. Ausaf informed the court that the Punjab government has already paid Rs300,000 each to the families of the students.

The court also ordered the authorities to take action against officials, who showed negligence in checking the fitness and route permit of the bus carrying the schoolchildren. The judges expressed concern at the issuance of the route permit to the bus owner, despite it having no insurance cover.

The chief justice wondered how the bus was given a fitness certificate and subsequently a route when it was not fit to ply on the road. The chief justice asked the Punjab government to take strict measures to get all vehicles, which ply in the city as well as on highways, examined by a third party to ensure transparency in the exercise.

Ashtar said he had already given a go-ahead for the exercise which would be completed diligently. A motorway police official said the stretch of the motorway, where the unfortunate incident took place, was technically flawed because of its steepness and sharp turns.

“We have built a separate path along the road, which stretches upwards, to ward off such incidents but the driver was not aware of it,” he said.

The chief justice asked why the motorway police did not check the bus which did not have the permit to ply on the motorway as it was being run under a route for Sialkot to Faisalabad.

The court put off the case for the third week of January.

Govt officials charged

Seven government officials found themselves in the line of fire on Tuesday, when the Millat Town police registered a case against them regarding the Kallar Kahar bus accident.

Bearing the brunt for the incident are the Faisalabad Development Authority (FDA), the education department, the board of intermediate and secondary education, Faisalabad motor vehicles authority and the motorway police.

The case was registered in light of the inquiry conducted by the chief minister’s inspection team who held the motorway police, the FDA and the motor vehicles authority responsible.

On September 26, 39 persons, including 34 children from Millat Grammar School, were killed and dozens sustained injuries when their bus overturned on the motorway in Kallar Kahar.

Motor vehicles examiner Sheikhupura school professor Shafiq and those involved in the sale and purchase of the bus were also nominated in the FIR.

The case was registered under sections 197, 206, 328, 420, 467, 468 and 471 of the Pakistan Penal Code vide FIR No 1281/11.

(WITH ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY SHAMSUL ISLAM IN FAISALABAD)

Published in The Express Tribune, December 14^th, 2011.