ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s President, Dr Arif Alvi, on Tuesday, directed Postal Life Insurance to pay the death insurance claim of 5 million rupees to the legal heirs of the deceased policyholder within thirty days.
He issued these directions while deciding upon a representation filed by the Postal Life Insurance against the decision of Wafaqi Mohtasib directing it to pay the death insurance claim, a President Secretariat media release said.
The complainant, Abdul Aziz’s deceased father, had obtained an insurance policy from PLI for the sum assured of five million rupees against an annual premium of 448,600 rupees in 2010.
After his father died in 2015, PLI refused to pay the death insurance claim on the pretext that the deceased had concealed material facts about the pre-insurance ailment of diabetes and his date of birth at the time of obtaining the insurance policy.
Feeling aggrieved, the son filed a complaint with the Wafaqi Mohtasib to seek relief. Wafaqi Mohtasib ruled that the deceased had purchased the insurance policy as per his date of birth mentioned on CNIC and that PLI had issued the insurance policy after accepting the required information.
The Mohtasib decided that the denial by the insurance agency to honour the claim of the complainant amounted to maladministration.
Afterward, PLI filed a representation against this judgment with the president.
President Dr Arif Alvi, in his decision, observed that as per Section 80 of the Insurance Ordinance, 2000, no policy of life insurance effected after the commencement date shall, after the expiry of 2 years from the date on which it was affected, be called in question by an insurer on the ground that a statement made in the proposal for insurance or in any report of a medical officer was false or inaccurate.
President Refers to Lahore High Court’s Ruling
He also referred to Lahore High Court’s ruling wherein it had been held that concealment of ailments, such as hypertension and diabetes, could not be termed as done fraudulently as most people having such diseases, by remaining more careful in their lifetime, lived either for decades or longer than people not having such ailments.
Keeping in view the facts, President Alvi ordered Postal Life Insurance to pay the death insurance to the heirs of the deceased within thirty days in compliance with the earlier decision of the Wafaqi Mohtasib.
