District and sessions court rejects airline’s appeals, fines carrier for delaying compensation
ISLAMABAD:
An Islamabad court has ordered Pakistani airline Airblue to pay 5.41 billion rupees ($19.5 million) in compensation to victims of a 2010 plane crash, rejecting all appeals filed by the airline, court officials said.
The decision was given by the District and Sessions Court of Islamabad. It dismissed eight appeals filed by Airblue and imposed a fine of Rs 1 million for each appeal, bringing the total fine to Rs 8 million.
The court said the compensation was being paid to the families and individuals affected by the accident, which killed several passengers when an Airblue plane crashed near Islamabad in July 2010.
According to the verdict, compensation will be paid as follows:
- Sumera Naveed Choudhry and two others will get Rs 143.189 million.
- Rashid Zulfiqar and four others will receive Rs 630.94 million.
- Muhammad Ilyas will receive 1.101 billion rupees.
- Gohar Rehman will receive Rs 507.348 million.
- Junaiduz Zaman Hamid will receive 996.048 million rupees.
- Muhammad Javed Khan will receive Rs 857.025 million.
- Mst. Salima Rajput will receive Rs 572.666 million.
- Retired Colonel Shamim Akhtar will receive Rs 606 million.
The ruling follows a civil suit filed against Airblue for its role in the 2010 crash. The victims’ families had challenged an earlier ruling by a civil judge, who awarded partial compensation of up to 10 million rupees per person.
In its ruling, the court criticized Airblue for filing appeals multiple times. The airline would have wasted legal time by contesting the compensation awarded to the victims.
Airblue’s lawyers objected to the compensation amounts but failed to convince the court.
The appeals filed by the victims are still pending in the Islamabad High Court. The High Court had earlier transferred jurisdiction of the case to the district and sessions court for a final decision.
