Margalla Air Crash: Airblue told to deposit compensation

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Tuesday issued contempt notices to the private airline Airblue’s chief operating officer, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, for allegedly defying the court order to pay Rs10 million compensation to heirs of each victim of the July 2010 air crash. Also, the airline’s management was given a week’s time to deposit the amount with the Sindh High Court’s nazir in addition to filing comments of Abbasi and chief executive officer Tariq Chauhdry. Over 150 passengers aboard the airline’s flight perished when it crashed into Margalla hills in Islamabad in July 2010. On Wednesday, relatives of two victims, Anwar Begum and Rao Zahid, pleaded the court to initiate contempt proceedings against the airline. They alleged that the court had previously ordered them to pay the amount as pledged by the airline, but nothing had been done so far. Justice Farooq Shah hearing the air crash compensation plea issued notice to Abbasi and Chaudhry.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 27^th, 2014.