President Rejects State Life Corporation’s Representation, Directs to give Insurance Money to Widow

President Dr Arif Alvi on Sunday rejected a representation of State Life Insurance Corporation of Pakistan (SLICP) and directed it to give insurance money to widow of a policy-holder, along with profits.

The President upheld a decision of Wafaqi Mohtasib against SLICP, which had denied payment of insurance claim to a widow on grounds that her husband had pre-insurance ailment of Hepatitis C and chronic liver disease.

The Wafaqi Mohtasib in its verdict had asked the SLICP to give widow the due amount of insurance claim following the death of her husband.

Endorsing the decision of Wafaqi Mohtasib, the President termed as “unfair” the SLICP’s rejection of insurance policy on flimsy grounds that the deceased had lied about his ailment.

President Alvi said it was responsibility of the company to ensure the same at time of insurance, adding that the “onus to prove the pre-insurance ailment rested upon the Agency”.

He called it “very traumatizing” for the widow, who had been waiting for over three years for settlement.

He directed the SLICP to settle the claim as per direction of the Wafaqi Mohtasib’s order and ensure that payment was made with profits up to the date of settlement.

The deceased Abid Bajwa had obtained a life insurance policy from SLICP in 2008 for a sum assured of Rs. 100,000. After his death in 2017, his widow Riffat Sultana filed the death insurance claim, which was repudiated by SLICP.

Feeling aggrieved, the complainant approached the Wafaqi Mohtasib who passed the impugned order, against which the SLICP filed a representation with the President.

The Wafaqi Mohtasib had contended that the policy-holder had no serious disease when he had purchased the policy, saying that it could not be construed that he had been nursing that disease from 2008.

Taking account of all facts, the President upheld the impugned order of Wafaqi Mohtasib. “I direct the agency to settle the claim as per direction of the Wafaqi Mohtasib order, and ensure that payment is also made of the profits up to the date of settlement, not 2017,” he said in his reply to the representation of SLICP.

Source: APP