KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Friday directed the provincial government to deposit the amount of compensation for families of victims of the Superhighway traffic accident tragedy with the SHC Nazir within seven days.

A two-judge bench headed by Justice Sajjad Ali Shah was hearing a petition filed for compensation for legal heirs of the victims’ families.

The petition was made out of a letter addressed to the then SHC chief justice by a brother of a lawyer who was among the accident victims.

Khalid H. Abbasi wrote to the chief justice that his brother, Advocate Mohammed Yasin Ahmeddin, and his family were travelling in the bus and their bodies were lying at the Edhi morgue in Sohrab Goth.

He said there were fire engines of the Pakistan Steel Mills near the place of the accident, but the PSM administration declined to give any assistance.

Mr Abbasi said there was acute shortage of fire engines and the laws in this regard were not updated by the provincial government.

He said the fire station at nearby Cattle Colony (Bhains Colony) remained open from 9am to 5pm.

The victim lawyer’s brother asked the court to order judicial inquiry into the matter and take action against the officials of the National Highway Authority (NHA) and others for their grave negligence.

He informed the chief justice that the victims’ families were waiting for the bodies of their near and dear ones, but the matter was being delayed due to deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) test of the victims.

The petitioner also asked the court to direct the officials of the NHA, the provincial government and the Karachi Municipal Corporation to explain as to why the tragic incident occurred and no measures were taken to save the victims.

He also requested the SHC to order the authorities concerned to pay reasonable compensation to the victims’ families.

On Friday, the judges were informed that the chief minister had announced a compensation of Rs500,000 for the families of each victim, but it was not paid so far.

The bench ordered the provincial authorities to deposit the compensation amount with the SHC Nazir within seven days so that it would be distributed among the victims’ families through a district and session judge.

Published in Dawn, April 25th, 2015

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