Compulsive reactions: Man jumps from flyover over delayed compensation

His house was demolished by the NHA for the construction of flyover.

MULTAN:

A man committed suicide on Monday by jumping from an under-construction National Highway Authority (NHA) flyover “for not being paid a compensation for his house that was demolished to make way for a flyover”.

The family later placed the body on the road near Kumharan Wala Square and protested for more than three hours. Later, Rescue 1122 officials shifted the body to his house after an assurance from Commissioner Khurram Ali Agha to take notice of the issue. Commissioner ordered the department concerned to provide him with all the record and ordered an inquiry into the matter. He also assured the relatives of the victim that they will be given justice.

Yasmeen Amjad, wife of deceased Muhammad Amjad, alleged that some officials had been demanding her husband to pay them a Rs1.5 million bribe in order to get the compensation.

She said the NHA had demolished their eight marla house a year and a half ago to construct the flyover on the square. She said he had not been provided the copy of ownership of his property from the records of the government, adding that all the other people displaced by the flyovers had been paid about a year ago.

She said Amjad had mentioned the suicide option several times, but she had never taken him seriously.

“Sometimes he would ask me to kill our three children and commit suicide. I had thought it was because of the pressure he was under,” she said.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 5^th, 2012.