ISLAMABAD, April 15: The Overseas Pakistanis Foundation (OPF) has so far compensated around 44,754 Pakistanis who were affected by Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990.

An OPF official told APP here on Sunday that the foundation had disbursed around $327 million among the Pakistanis who lost their jobs, businesses and properties and had to return home penniless.

He said the amount was provided by the UN Compensation Commission (UNCC) in two phases for the welfare and rehabilitation of the Gulf War-affected Pakistanis.

The UNCC, created in 1991, was mandated to process claims and pay compensation for losses suffered as a direct result of the war, he added.

“Under the government’s instructions, the OPF established relief camps at Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Quetta and Taftan to help and facilitate the returnees,” the official noted.

Subsequently in 1991, he said, the government mandated the OPF to process compensation claims and arrange disbursement of compensation amount received from the United Nations.

Accordingly, 44,498 applications were received and forwarded to UNCC for settlement. Of these 43,971 claims were approved by the UN commission for payment of compensation involving an amount of $316 million in the first phase.

The official said the foundation’s “efficient performance” was lauded by the UNCC and other international organisations.

In 2003, the matter was again taken up by the OPF with UNCC after many people belonging to rural or tribal areas who returned from Kuwait approached the OPF for compensation.

These people pleaded that they had no information about the OPF-run campaign, which was publicised in the media, the official added.

Due to the government efforts, he said, the UNCC responded positively and set a criteria for entertaining the left-out claims.

Later, in the second and last phase, 830 applications were received by the foundation and were referred to the UNCC for settlement.