Around five months have passed since the unfortunate crash of Airblue flight ED 202. Considering the way investigations related to such incidents take place in Pakistan, it is not surprising that no outcome whatsoever has yet surfaced regarding the cause of the incident. Even the small compensation of 5 million rupees has not yet been disbursed to the victims’ families, which again is not surprising.

Today’s (December 14, 2010) DAWN Newspaper features Shiekh Muhammad Anwar’s letter to the editor which, so to say, gives a step-by-step guide on how the families may be able to get their well-deserved compensation. A lawyer by profession, and having worked in both public and private sectors, S.M. Anwar is a veteran in the field of aviation law. The letter gives a more pragmatic approach to dealing with Airblue, who after all are a corporate entity, and do not seem to be interested in giving the families their due amounts.

The letter is a sympathetic response to the TV program “Sawal yeh hay” telecast on ARY NEWS on December 12, 2010. The compensation amount has been erroneously published as 50 million, which is actually 5 million rupees. We at Pakool did our part by re-publishing the article here, you can do yours by spreading it.

A forgotten tragedy?

AIRBLUE aircraft crashed on the Margalla Hills on July 28 and one has yet to hear what compensation, if any, has been given by Airblue to the heirs of the 152 people killed in the accident and what is the state of the aircraft investigation, as disclosed in a TV programme on Dec 12.

It was heart-rending to listen to touching complaints of some of the family members of the deceased who are running from pillar to post to get the high compensation of Rs50 million generously announced by the Airblue and not reneged so far.

They also criticised the government for not revealing the investigation report stated to be already finalised.

There was an outpouring of sympathy for the families of those killed in the worst disaster after it happened.

However, the compassionate feelings seemed to have cooled down and perhaps the airline is also having second thoughts about the amount of compensation announced by them.

The CAA or the federal government also appears in no mood to announce the fate of the accident investigation.

Everything seems to be on the back burner to the chagrin of the unfortunate families, some of them have gone or intend to go to court to get their claims.

As a student of air law and having sympathy with the families of the victims, I would like to suggest the following for consideration of the claimants:

a. Please get succession certificate through the district court concerned at the earliest, if not already done. No one is going to give you a penny without this certificate.

b. Send an attested copy of this certificate to Airblue to claim Rs50 million committed by them. Give them time to verify your claim.

c. Do not rush to courts for this purpose. If you do, the airline would simply hibernate, saying that the matter has become sub judice. Please do it only if you feel that you deserve higher compensation.

d. If you do not get any response from the airline within a reasonable time, then knock at the door of courts.

e. Do not distress yourself about the non-publication of the aircraft investigation report, the government has not done in the past and they are unlikely to do it now, the current hackneyed rules protect them.

S.M. ANWAR
Karachi

The letter can also be found here on DAWN’s official website.