Court Rejects Airblue Appeals, Orders Rs5.41bn Compensation to victims

A district and sessions court has dismissed all eight appeals filed by Airblue in civil compensation cases arising from the 2010 plane crash and ordered the airline to pay more than Rs5.41 billion in damages to the victims.

The court also imposed a fine of Rs100,000 per appeal on Airblue, amounting to a total penalty of Rs8 million, for filing what it termed unnecessary litigation and wasting judicial time.

Additional District and Sessions Judge Dr Rasool Bakhsh Mirjat issued detailed written judgments on eight appeals filed by the victims and eight appeals filed by Airblue against earlier civil court rulings related to losses suffered in the crash.

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Under the verdict, Airblue has been directed to pay Rs143.189 million to Samira Naveed Chaudhry and two other victims, Rs630.94 million to Rashid Zulfiqar and four others, and Rs1,101.868 million to Muhammad Ilyas. The court also ordered compensation of Rs507.348 million to Gohar Rehman, Rs996.048 million to Junaid-ul-Zaman Hamid, Rs857.025 million to Muhammad Javed Khan, Rs572.666 million to Saleema Rajput, and Rs606 million to retired Colonel Shamim Akhtar.

The affected families had challenged the earlier decision of the civil judge, who had allowed compensation only up to a partial limit of Rs10 million per person. The court enhanced the compensation after hearing the appeals.

The court noted that the victims’ appeals had earlier remained under consideration in the high court, which later returned the matter to the sessions courts after determining the issue of jurisdiction.

In its ruling, the court observed that Airblue’s repeated appeals amounted to unnecessary litigation and misuse of the judicial process, warranting the imposition of fines in addition to the compensation awarded.