Margalla Hills tragedy: Aftermath of the crash

Family members of crash victims question investigations’ transparency, say that handing it over to CAA is "unlawful".

RAWALPINDI/KARACHI: Dissatisfied by initiatives taken by the government and AirBlue management, families of the AirBlue victims protested against the delayed investigations by staging coordinated protests in Karachi and Rawalpindi. They have also formed an association named the ‘Air Crash Affectees Group’ (ACAG).

Family members of the crash victims came to the Karachi Press Club on Saturday and questioned the investigations’ transparency and authenticity which had been handed over by the government to the CAA; which the families claim is biased because it has a stake in the matter. “It is unlawful and even insensible to allow the CAA to investigate,” said Junaid Hamid, the husband of one of the crash victims.

The bereaved families who were protesting at the Rawalpindi Chambers of Commerce and Industry office on Saturday had similar concerns about the investigation. They demanded that the Chief Justice of Pakistan take suo motu action and establish an independent commission to investigate the matter.

Forlorn relatives and next of kin have yet to see any justice, four months after the tragedy. They do not know who to blame, they do not know when they will be compensated and the government authorities are not responding to their concerns.

The chief executive officer of AirBlue, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi had promised on September 30 that each victim’s family would be given cheques worth Rs550,000 within two weeks. Up till now, only 10 families have received them, said the ACAG, adding that “Another Eid is around the corner and we are still waiting to receive the compensation that was promised to us at the last one.

Hamid rejected the compensation being offered by AirBlue and demanded that families of the victims receive reparation on international scale. “AirBlue has insurance coverage worth $750 million and we still haven’t received anything.”

The families of the victims have demanded that the succession certificate requirement be waived because the government has made submitting a succession certificate to AirBlue as necessary for receiving compensation. This has some of the victims worried. “It requires five to six months to get the succession certificate however, there are many families who are not financially well off and need money badly and cannot wait that long,” said the family members protesting in Rawalpindi.

Talking to The Express Tribune, AirBlue CEO, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi rejected family member claims and said that 92 families had been compensated so far and that the rest would be compensated by the end of the month. And he explained that the succession certificate was a legal requirement and was necessary.

People are also having trouble recovering the bodies of the victims and their belongings. Some of them the bodies had been given to the wrong families.

Samin Ahmed, whose nephew was one of the victims, claimed that the authorities had given the body to another family and given him their name and number to go and get it from them. Ahmed however, lost the details of the family by accident and when he returned to the authorities to get it again, they said that they too had lost the records.

One woman, Sara Tariq, whose father’s body had been misplaced by the authorities, was told that she could now get someone else’s body if she wanted.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 14^th, 2010.