Our Client’s Crop Insurance dispute through Barrister Junaid Ahmed has been finally amicably settled with the UBL Insurers Limited (‘Insurance Company;) before Federal Insurance Ombudsmen on 11.11.2021. By way of background, one of the renowned landlord engaged our firm for being aggrieved from the illegal actions and omissions of the Insurance Company , as the the Insurance Company has failed to fairly compensate and settle the insured amount despite our Client’s crop of Cotton and Sugar Cane completely damaged/destroyed by floods and excessive rain which lasted from 17.08.2020 till 31.08.2020.
That it is important to highlight that Crop Insurance Policy deals with the financial protection against natural disasters such as floods, excessive rain, fire & lightning, and insect/pets attacks on standing crops. As 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 of August 2020 from 17.08.2020 till 31.08.2020, the Crops of our Client including cotton and sugar cane, before the same even reached 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 ever wettest month” since 1961. The provinces of Sindh and Baluchistan experienced exceptionally excessive rainfall of 363% & 271% above average respectively and August 2020 had the highest rainfall in the last sixty years.
The damage is further substantiated from the report issued by the Government of Sindh, office of the Mukhtiarkar (Revenue) Umerkot, dated 28.8.2020, which identified and confirmed that, due to the Monsoon – 2020, 100% of the crops were damaged in the Umerkot. Similarly, on 29.08.2020, the Government of Sindh, Relief Department, issued a notification whereby various areas of Sindh declared as “Calamity Affected Areas” including the Division Mirpurkhas and its Districts Mirpurkhas, Umerkot, and Tharparkar.
Nonetheless, our firm after continuously perusing the matter both with the UBL, and with the Federal Insurance Ombudsmen we successfully able to achieve our Client’s objective and as our Client has able to achieve approx. 94% (highest percentage ever awarded to anyone in Pakistan under Crop Insurance) of the damaged assessed by the independent Surveyor.
