Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi rejected four representations filed by the State Life Insurance Corporation of Pakis­tan (SLICP) against decisions of the federal ombudsman, ordering it to pay a collective sum of over Rs1.6 million to the families of the deceased policyholders.

The corporation had refused to pay the amount assured in the life insurance policy on the flimsy ground that the insured persons did not deliberately disclose their pre-insurance ailments at the time of obtaining the policy.

The president upheld the decision of the ombudsman and ordered that SLICP must fulfill its contractual obligations and pay the policy besides reporting compliance to the ombudsman within 30 days.

Shakeel Zafar Khan, Muha­m­mad Nawaz, Ghulam Yaseen and Tanveer Hussain had obtained life insurance policies from SLICP for the sums assured of Rs700,000, Rs500,000, Rs210,000 and Rs200,000, respectively.

Subsequently, the insurance policyholders expired and their families filed separate insurance claims, which were denied by SLICP on the ground that the deceased policyholders had pre-insurance ailments which they had concealed at the time of obtaining the policies.

Feeling aggrieved, the family members of the policyholders approached federal ombudsman to seek justice.

The complainants contended that the deceased persons had no pre-insurance diseases and the insurance claims had been rejected unjustifiably.

The federal ombudsman, having investigated the cases, noted that the onus to prove that the policyholders suffered from some disease before obtaining the policy and willfully hid the facts from the insurance agency rested upon the SLICP. It further stated that the insurance agency must present evidence regarding the existence of alleged pre-insurance ailments and its knowledge on the part of policyholders.

The ombudsman observed that in the instant cases, the agency had failed to present any evidence or diagnostic assessment to corroborate the SLICP claim.

It further noted the fact that all four field officers of the agency had categorically declared that the deceased were healthy at the time of the issuance of the policy.

The ombudsman, therefore, ordered SLICP to fulfill its contractual obligations by making payments of the full policy claims to the complainants.