Policyholders get Rs2 billion relief on ombudsman’s order

LAHORE:The efforts of Federal Insurance Ombudsman (FIO) for protecting the rights of the insurance policyholders by adjudicating on their complaints against the maladministration and fraudulent methods of the insurance companies resulted in providing nearly Rs2 billion relief to the complainants during the year 2021.

In the year 2021, the FIO secretariat received 3,528 complaints against different insurance companies for defrauding the clients, misspelling of policies and meting out injustice to the clients. Of them, 3,403 were disposed of with 90 per cent of the complains were settled by resolving the issues amicably, says annual report 2021 of the Federal Insurance Ombudsman which was recently presented to President Dr Arif Alvi who is also the appellate authority against the judgments of FIO.

“All the judgments of FIO were gladly accepted by the parties and no appeal was filed against these judgments which is a big success, not only for the FIO Dr Khawar Jameel and his associates at the FIO regional offices in the country, but also for entire team of FIO”, said Abdul Basit Khan, Adviser/In charge FIO regional office Lahore, while talking to The News.

According to the annual report, despite the work pressure and restrictions due to Covid-19 pandemic, the FIO secretariat continued to services to all the aggrieved citizens and policyholders for protecting their rights. It said the adjudication by FIO provided nearly two billion rupees monetary relief to the aggrieved complainants and policyholders.

Abdul Basit said FIO is working on a mission to provide judicious protection of the interests of all the stakeholders in the insurance industry and redress the grievances of policyholders against the maladministration and misspelling of the policies.

He said the vision of FIO is to develop a modern and sound oversight mechanism based on equitable principles to take cognizance of the maladministration in the insurance industry. He said insurance sector is essential for the development of and growth of country’s economy.