KARACHI, March 17: Insurance companies have been directed to devise a formula to pay compensation to those insured vehicles which were destroyed or damaged during the violence that had erupted in the aftermath of PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto’s assassination on Dec 27, 2007.

These directives were issued on Monday at a meeting of the sub-committee constituted by the federal government to assess losses and compensate the people whose commercial or private vehicles were destroyed or damaged.

The committee, headed by Special Home Secretary Rashid Alam, met here at the Sindh Secretariat. Those present at the meeting included the deputy secretary of the federal interior ministry and other relevant officials from Punjab, Balochistan, the NWFP, FATA, representatives of insurance companies and others.

Mr Alam also gave three days to the insurance companies to provide the committee with details if any compensation had been paid to anyone whose vehicles commercial or private were destroyed or damaged during the period from Dec 27 to 31. The details have been sought to avoid double payment to anyone as all those who had claimed losses had intimated the relevant authorities that their vehicles were not insured.

Observers may recall that during the violence that had erupted soon after Ms Bhutto’s killing at Liaquat Bagh in Rawalpindi, over 1,000 vehicles were set ablaze or damaged by angry protesters in different cities including Karachi. The government had given assurance to the affected people to compensate the losses and had invited complaints in this regard.

The committee is likely to complete assessment of the losses and submit its report to the interior ministry within one month, said sources.