ISLAMABAD – Expressing concern over the violation of Insurance Ordinance 2000, the Standing Committee of the National Assembly on Human Rights Friday directed the insurance companies, including the State Life Insurance Corporation of Pakistan, to keep their clients updated on their annual profits and reduce procedural issues for quick disbursement of the amounts against clients’ claims.
Taking notice of the complaints that insurance companies were violating the Insurance Ordinance 2000, the committee meeting, held under the chairmanship of Riaz Fatyana, told the companies to immediately form small disputes resolution bodies in all their regions of operations and advertised them in newspapers.
The committee further told the companies to simplify their agreement forms and make their versions available in all regional languages to facilitate the people.
The committee also said that the insurance companies should reduce the process time and provide health and disability cover to all their clients.
The Standing Committee also raised objection that disbursement between Rs 13 billion to Rs 16 billion annually during the period of 2008 to 2010 as bonuses among the employees and Rs 1.6 billion in the same years annually among the life insurance policyholders was immoral. “The disbursement of bigger share among the employees and smaller one among the policyholders, the primary source of revenue, could not be justified”, Chairman of the committee Riaz Fatyana said.
Earlier, Shahid Saddiqui, chairman of the State Life Insurance Corporation of Pakistan, said around 41 percent of the claims were pending as they involved problems like issuance of succession certificates, loss of policy documents and other issues pertaining to rules and companies laws.
He also said that State Life Corporation of Pakistan followed a procedure in disbursement of the amounts against claims of the policyholders. He informed the committee that if a policyholder died within first two years of the policy, then the corporation’s investigators taking into account of the respective hospitals’ record investigated that matter to ascertain had the policyholder not been guilty of misreporting of his of her disease. He also said that in case of being found guilty, the matter was decided by the Federal Ombudsman. The chairman of the State Life Corporation of Pakistan also said that normal period for disbursing the amount is 3 months and it if exceeded more than that, the interest of the additional time was also paid to the policyholders.
Meanwhile, the committee also looked into the complaint of a woman from District Ghotki that her land had been illegally occupied by an MNA who also accused her of being a kari. The committee formed a body consisting of Farahnaz Ispahani and Fozia Habeeb to take the woman’s case to the Aiwan-e-Sadr for resolution in consultation with Marvi Menon and Mehreen Bhutto.
