SHC asks why families of slain cops have not received compensation

NGO had asked court to direct authorities to provide monetary compensation to legal heirs.

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) issued notices to the chief secretary and the Sindh IGP to explain why families of 172 policemen, who lost their lives in the line of duty, have not been paid compensation despite repeated promises.

SHC Chief Justice Maqbool Baqar ordered to issue notice to the officials while taking notice on a letter addressed by a non-profit organisation, which sought a direction for the relevant authorities to provide monetary compensation to the legal heirs of various police officials and officers killed by criminals in the city.

The petitioner organisation, Justice Helpline, referred to media reports, which suggested that the police department usually announces an immediate compensation of Rs40,000 for the funeral expenses of the slain cops, as well as Rs2 million for each victim’s family.

The reports claimed, however, that a majority of the heirs have received neither the funeral expenses nor the Rs2 million compensation money, even though the police department had received Rs320 million in this regard, while the provincial government had also approved Rs600 million for the purpose.

Nadeem Sheikh, a representative of the NGO, said that the media report quoted the spokesperson of AIG Karachi Shahid Hayat as saying that the process of validating the claims of the slain policemen’s heirs was difficult, but efforts were being made to ensure early release of compensation money.

He requested the court to direct the government and police department to compensate the legal heirs of the martyred cops at the earliest.

CJ Baqar, while converting the letter into a constitutional petition, issued notice to the Sindh police IG to file comments explaining the non-payment of compensation as alleged by the petitioner by March 25.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 20^th, 2014.