KARACHI: The government of Pakistan’s Sindh province has received compensation claims from 550 families who lost their loved ones to targeted killings on ethnic, political or sectarian grounds in the first half of 2012, it emerged yesterday.
It was also found that most of the victims were activists of ruling coalition parties.
The claims have been received by the commission set up last year by the Sindh government for compensating the families of targeted killing victims. Officials privy to the commission’s working said that 550 claims have been received for the killings which took place from January to June.
“The commission, headed by retired Justice Zahid Qurban Alvi, has forwarded all the claims to the police for scrutiny,” said an official.
“Most of the claims were filed by families of activists from different political parties, with most of them associated with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), Awami National Party (ANP) and the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).”
The six other parties which also came up with compensation claims for their slain workers include the Awami Tehreek, Jafria Alliance, Jamaat-i-Islami, Sunni Tehreek, Mohajir Qaumi
Movement (Haqiqi) and a community-based group of Lyari and the Kutchhi Rabita Committee, he added.
With no end to killings in sight, the Sindh government has decided to pay compensation to the families of those targeted this year, as it did last year when it paid more than Rs95m to the heirs of 476 people who fell prey to targeted killing.
“The commission had recommended the families of 476 victims last year for compensation,” the source said. “Thus, each family received Rs200,000 as compensation from the government.”
This year as well, the government has approved a sum of more than Rs95m to be paid as compensation money. “The process for the payment of compensation has been envisaged like that in 2011,” he said.
The commission had been set up in November 2011 and after about a dozen meetings was able to finalise its findings by February 2012. The government’s decision to keep the commission working might help the families cope with grief, but it also reflects the acknowledgement of failure by the authorities who were unable to stop the bloodshed.
Internews
