Families of dead miners in Pakistan refuse compensation
In the Pakistani city of Alpuri, the families of 32 miners who died in an explosion at a coal mine in Quetta on July 30 refused to accept compensation checks worth 400,000 rupees. The payments were brought by the Balochistan Workers Welfare Fund, Dawn reports.
Payment ceremony interrupted
The checks were to be presented during a ceremony at the district hall in Alpuri. The event was attended by Workers Welfare Fund Secretary Zulfiqar Ahmad, fund officials in Balochistan, Shangla district Deputy Commissioner Abdullah Khan, provincial assembly member Rashad Khan and other officials.
The compensation was to be received by the legal heirs of 32 deceased miners from three villages in Shangla district. The relatives refused to take the checks, causing the ceremony to be interrupted.
Statements by families and authorities
Afsarul Mulk Afghan, a representative of the miners' families, said that the proposed amount was less than what, in his view, the deceased deserved. He claimed that the Balochistan authorities were trying to resume operations at the closed mine and that the payments were allegedly linked to its reopening.
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Afghan also said that poor workers from Shangla had been forced to work in dangerous mines. According to him, negligence and compromises on workplace safety had led to an increase in fatal incidents.
Abdullah Khan and Rashad Khan assured the families that they would work on miners' safety through legislation, policy and law enforcement. The deputy commissioner told Dawn that the families had repeatedly been informed about the origin of the checks from the Workers Welfare Fund, but they still viewed the payments with suspicion.
According to the official, all 32 checks remained with him, and he planned to hand them over to the families within a few days. He also said that some representatives of an association had tried to politicize the event.
