Islamabad (dpa) – Pakistan’s government has ordered oil company Shell to pay compensation of 1 million Pakistani rupees (9,500 dollars) to the families of each of the people who died in one of the worst tanker explosions in the country’s history with now 216 dead.
According to a report published on Friday, 12 days after the accident, Pakistan’s Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) also asked Shell Pakistan to pay 0.5 million rupees to each of the injured and a penalty of 10 million rupees to the government, OGRA spokesman Imran Ghaznavi told dpa.
The circumstances of the accident remained unclear. The report mentioned “irresponsible driving.” Police investigators said the driver had been speeding.
The report, however, mentioned that the fuel tanker as per regulations should have had five axles while the crashed vehicle only had had four. It also found that the lorry’s fitness certificate was fake.
A spokesman for Shell Pakistan, Habib Haider, said the company would comment on the decision later.
The accident happened on June 25 when the tanker veered off the road and later exploded near the eastern city of Bahawalpur. Many people
from nearby villages had gathered around the vehicle to collect the fuel that was pouring out onto the road when the tanker exploded.
In the meantime, the death toll keeps rising. “The number of dead has now reached 216 people,” Atif Jamal, a doctor at the area’s largest
hospital said on Friday. Another 46 people were still being treated, most of them for severe burns.
