ISLAMABAD, April 22: The Overseas Pakistanis Foundation has been making payments of compensation claims among Gulf War victims in a transparent manner in accordance with the rules of United Nations Compensation Commission (UNCC), a spokesman said.
Clarifying a news item which appeared in Dawn on April 15 captioned "5000 Kuwait war victims yet to get compensation", the spokesman said the OPF had just collected the claim forms from the victims and submitted to the UNCC.
The spokesman denied the allegations regarding issuance of computerized number of claims after receiving bribe from claimants. He said that OPF had been informing the claimants about the receipt of their amounts from the UNCC through mail.
The statement of former minister, the late Abdul Sattar Laleka, was misunderstood. "The fact is that the UNCC had asked the Pakistan government to gather details about those claimants who fulfilled the criteria.
"The UNCC criteria was advertised in newspapers. The UNCC is to approve claims amount". The spokesman further denied that the OPF had received any amount against the late claims of Gulf War victims.