Kallar Kahar accident: SC wants more cash for children’s families

AG says he will try to persuade Motorway to enhance compensation.

ISLAMABAD:

Expressing dissatisfaction over the methods of monitoring the fitness of vehicles in Punjab, the chief justice directed the attorney general to consult the Motorway authorities and persuade them to increase the compensation granted to the families of the children killed in the Kallar Kahar accident.

A three-judge bench, headed by Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, was hearing the suo motu case on Thursday of the accident which killed 33 people, mostly schoolchildren, who died as an over-loaded passenger bus overturned on the Lahore-Islamabad Motorway last year.

In reply to the bench’s demand, the attorney general replied that the law did not have provisions of such as a compensation by the Motorway authorities, but he said that he would try to convince the authorities and inform the Registrar about the progress.

“Examine the state of a vehicle in light of the Motor Vehicle Ordinance 1960. Conduct this exercise daily and ban vehicles which fall short of the fitness criteria,” the chief justice said. He was told that the Punjab government had cancelled certificates of 482 public transport vehicles out of the 14,000 examined so far.

In reply, Punjab Prosecutor General Ashtar Ausaf said they would comply with the court directions to the satisfaction of the judges.

Ausaf stated that each family had been given Rs800,000 in compensation and Motor Vehicle Transport Association had contributed an amount of Rs3.8 million as well.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 27^th, 2012.