Our Client’s Crop Insurance dispute through Barrister Junaid Ahmed has been finally amicably settled with the UBL Insurers Limited (‘Insurance Company’) before the Federal Insurance Ombudsmen on 11.11.2021. By way of background, one of the renowned landlords engaged our firm for being aggrieved by the illegal actions and omissions of the Insurance Company, as the Insurance Company had failed to fairly compensate and settle the insured amount despite our Client’s crop of cotton and sugar cane being completely damaged/destroyed by floods and excessive rain, which lasted from 17.08.2020 till 31.08.2020.
It is important to highlight that a Crop Insurance Policy deals with financial protection against natural disasters such as floods, excessive rain, fire & lightning, and insect/pest attacks on standing crops. The Insurance Company agrees to indemnify (that is, to protect) the insured (farmer, rancher, or grower) against losses that occur during the crop year.
However, in mid-August 2020, from 17.08.2020 till 31.08.2020, the crops of our Client, including cotton and sugar cane, before even reaching the stage of harvesting, were “completely destroyed (100%)” by the excessive floods and rainfall. According to the Government of Pakistan, Meteorological Department Report of August 2020, it states: August 2020 ranked as “Pakistan’s wettest month ever” since 1961. The provinces of Sindh and Baluchistan experienced exceptionally excessive rainfall of 363% and 271% above average, respectively, and August 2020 had the highest rainfall in the last sixty years.
The damage is further substantiated by the report issued by the Government of Sindh, office of the Mukhtiarkar (Revenue) Umerkot, dated 28.08.2020, which identified and confirmed that, due to the Monsoon 2020, 100% of the crops were damaged in Umerkot. Similarly, on 29.08.2020, the Government of Sindh, Relief Department, issued a notification whereby various areas of Sindh were declared as “Calamity Affected Areas,” including the Division Mirpurkhas and its Districts Mirpurkhas, Umerkot, and Tharparkar.
Nonetheless, our firm, after continuously pursuing the matter both with UBL and the Federal Insurance Ombudsmen, successfully achieved our Client’s objective, as our Client was able to receive approx. 94% (highest percentage ever awarded to anyone in Pakistan under Crop Insurance) of the damage assessed by the independent surveyor.