Compensation announced for Sehwan mishap victims

• Sindh government announces compensation for Sehwan tragedy victims.
• Nasir Shah, Qaim Ali Shah, Nafisa Shah offered condolences to the bereaved families.
• At least 21 passengers lost their lives in a roadside accident near Sehwan toll plaza.

The bereaved families of the Sehwan toll plaza victims will receive one million rupees as the Sindh government has announced compensation for them.

The announcement by the provincial government comes a couple of days after 21 passengers, including 12 children, were killed and several others injured as their van plunged into a water-filled pothole near the Sehwan toll plaza on the Indus Highway on Thursday.

Local Government Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah announced the compensation. The minister, accompanied by former chief minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah, met the bereaved families to offer condolences to them. PPP MNA Dr Nifsa Shah was also present on the occasion.

The minister appreciated that Federal Communications Minister Maulana Asad Mahmood had promptly taken cognizance of the Sehwan tragedy, ordered an inquiry, and suspended some of the responsible officials.

He said Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah had also intimated to him that an inquiry would be conducted to determine the causes of the accident and that action would be taken against officials who showed negligence in this incident.

He, however, pointed out that the accident occurred on the Indus Highway, which comes under the federal domain as primarily the National Highway Authority and Motorway Police were responsible for any mishap on the main inter-city highway.

Shah, however, assured the media persons that action would be taken against the relevant officials of the provincial administration who had reportedly shown negligence after the tragedy had occurred and didn’t promptly help out the victims.

He said the Sindh government had paid Rs7 billion to the federal authorities for proper dualisation of the Indus Highway near Sehwan after several fatal traffic accidents on this portion of the road. He said the Sindh government had paid this amount despite the fact that the federal government was under the obligation to bear all the expenses of the expansion of the deadly portion of the Indus Highway.

He said the dualisation work should have been completed, but the project remained unfinished as an incompetent government had been in power in the country in the past three-and-half-years. He said the persons injured in the Sehwan road tragedy would be given the best health treatment facilities.

To a question, the local government minister said the road accident occurred in Sehwan, which was part of Hyderabad Division whose several portions had been affected due to floodwaters.

He said the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had also acknowledged that several rural parts of Hyderabad Division were calamity-affected with damaged civic infrastructure, and the local government elections couldn’t be held there immediately.