ISLAMABAD, Oct 28: The State Life Insurance Corporation of Pakistan has to play a greater role to safeguard the interest of its policy-holders by providing effective financial services in line with the Insurance Ordinance 2000.

This was stated by commerce minister Abdul Razzak Dawood at a ceremony held here to mark the 30th anniversary celebration of State Life, says a press release.

Those present on the occasion included members of the board of directors, executive directors, senior government officials, senior corporate and marketing executives, policyholders, elite of the city and mediapersons.

Mr Dawood greeted the State Life’s management, employees and marketing force on achieving an impressive corporate growth during the three decades of its service to the policy-holders and the nation. He hoped that the corporation would expand its operations to provide the benefits of life insurance to every household in the country.

Earlier, the State Life chairman, Sameeul Hassan, in his welcome speech, said the corporation had paid more than Rs17 billion on account of maturity and death claims that benefited 455,393 policyholders and their families from 1972 to August 2002.

Another revolutionary step taken for the benefit of policy- holders was to pay compensation in case of delay in settlement of claims beyond 90 days, he said. On the group-life side, he said, State Life had paid more than Rs15 billion to the group claimants from 1972-August 2002.

The chairman said life fund of the corporation stood at Rs75 billion, as at December 31, 2001, while the investment portfolio had reached Rs73 billion in 2001, showing an increase of 15.17 per cent in that period.

He said the book value of corporation’s real estate stood at more than Rs25 billion and there were plans to construct new landmark buildings in large cities and towns. He said the real owners of the corporation were its 5.1 million policy-holders, 1.8 million individuals and 3.3 million group-life. He thanked the minister for extending his full cooperation to help achieve the business targets in the last three years. —PR