Helping martyrs’ families: Govt raises compensation amount up to Rs3 million

Ensures a senate panel that all cheques will be provided within seven days

ISLAMABAD: The government has raised compensation packages for the families of those civil and military personnel, who are martyred or injured in terror attacks.

The compensation amount now ranges from Rs1million to Rs3million for family of a martyred civil and military personnel, Interior Ministry informed a senate panel on Tuesday.

Earlier this year, the government had decided to consolidate the compensation packages approved under the new National Internal Security Policy (NISP).



Interior Ministry will also ensure that all cheques for financial compensation will be provided to family members within seven days.

Interior Ministry’s Additional Secretary Imtiaz Tajwar told Senate Standing Committee on Interior that they had revised the rate of compensation for the martyrs of police and paramilitary forces.

According to details The Express Tribune collected from the concerned officials, the estimated cost of the provincial component of this policy is Rs22billion and while the estimated cost of the policy’s federal components is Rs10billion.

During the course of proceedings, the senate panel – headed by Senator Talha Mahmood – took also briefing from Gilgit-Baltistan officials on security related matters.

The GB government did not endorse the viewpoint of the interior committee that there should be an additional check post near the border area of the Pakistan and China.

The officials informed the lawmakers that the area has been declared as the Khunjerab National Park that is being protected by the Khunjerab Security Force raised 27 years ago.

“In presence of GB Police, the GB government does not endorse the deployment of paramilitary force there,” said a senior official. However, Senator Talha Mahmood said that it was the observation for the committee as this place is open for terrorists.

Senator Rehman Malik, a member of the committee, asked the government as to what were the losses –economic, administrative and human – caused by the sit-ins in Islamabad.

“The government should give a report to the committee in this connection,” he said, adding that the committee should also be informed about the recent incidents of human smuggling from Islamabad airport.

Frontier Constabulary’s (FC) Commandant Abdul Majeed Marwat informed the committee that 4, 000 posts in the FC were lying vacant. Additional Secretary Interior informed the committee that there was a ban on the recruitments that had been lifted recently and the criteria was being developed to fill these posts.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 15^th, 2014.