April 06, 2007	Friday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 17, 1428

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ISLAMABAD, April 5: Thousands of people who lost their jobs, businesses and belongings when Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990 will not get any money after the UN Compensation Commission (UNCC) winds up its operation.

Most of the Gulf War victims belonging to the southern Punjab or tribal areas were not even aware about the UN-sponsored compensation campaign.

The UNCC, created in 1991, was mandated to process claims and pay compensation for losses suffered as a direct result of Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait. It has so far received 20.6 million claims from various countries amounting to $368 billion.

The OPF was tasked to collect compensation claims from the Pakistanis who were repatriated from Kuwait during the first Gulf War.

According to the foundation’s figures, there were only 60,000 returnees and initially it forwarded 45,000 claims out of which the UNCC had approved 44,000 and released compensation money to the OPF for distribution among the claimants.

Taking advantage of people’s ignorance about the compensation campaign, many people pretending to be war affectees had submitted claims through the OPF.

In 2003, the foundation sent 28,000 more claims, of which the UN commission approved only 830 and rejected others, terming them bogus and duplicate and asking Pakistan to stop sending claims.

Most of the people who returned from Kuwait belonged to rural or tribal areas and had no information about the OPF-run campaign, which was confined to a few newspaper advertisements.

The UN body had given Rs16 billion to the OPF to be paid as compensation.

Interestingly, the OPF has withheld Rs20.4 million out of the money released by the UNCC for which no claimant has so far contacted the foundation.

Sources said a large number of war victims had approached the OPF but their cases were not considered.

OPF’s Secretary Habibur Rehman Khan said that the foundation stopped entertaining claims a long time ago after the UNCC-set deadline ended.

He acknowledged that thousands of people had not filed claims, adding that the OPF had informed the people through newspapers.

Member of the Senate’s Standing Committee on Labour, Manpower and Overseas Pakistanis Senator Anwar Baig told this correspondent that the OPF was withholding money given by the UNCC and alleged that the foundation was misappropriating funds.

He said he would discuss the issue with Minister for Labour, Manpower and Overseas Pakistanis Ghulam Sarwar Khan.