Jang Media Group, EFU Life Insurance seminar: Call to create awareness about insurance benefits

LAHORE: There is a need of creating massive public awareness about the insurance, insurance companies, their products, benefits, besides a pro-industry development policy for the development and growth of insurance sector in Pakistan.

The share of insurance sector in GDP is only one percent as almost Rs378 billion insurance premiums collected annually in Pakistan while in developed countries like US, 30 percent while no one can even think that they are not insured or their products are not insured.

This consensus was developed in a seminar jointly organised by the Jang Media Group and EFU Life Insurance on “Social Protection and Importance of Insurance” here Tuesday.

Speaking on the occasion, Chief Guest Punjab Governor Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar said the government introduced Health Insaf Cards through which insured the poor segment of society, besides crop insurance schemes to protect the farmers from calamity damages and losses.

He asked the philanthropist to move forward and support the government on health insurance project. Further, sharing his experiences, Ch Sarwar mentioned that the insurance system of the West and Europe was also not transparent and the insurance companies and banks also abused the general public there. However, their governments now make the better laws to protect the people. He said Pakistan was moving forward and country needs secure transparent insurance system too.

The governor appreciating the Ombudspersons offices mentioned that from 90 to 95 percent of Ombudspersons appeal cases were considerate decisions which shows good performance of the these offices. He wished that he could also say the same words for university cases too. He mentioned that in majority of university cases referred to governor office injustice were made in promotion and recruitments. However, he hoped that this tendency would come down after hiring of vice-chancellors on merit and this merit policy would be continued in hiring of others by these VCs.

Federal Ombudsperson for Women Protection Against Harassment Kashmala Tariq on the occasion stressed the need of creating awareness about the power of the offices of the ombudsperson in public. She believed that public was unaware of the powers and relief they can get from these offices. She mentioned that when she took the charge of the office only monthly five cases were registered which now increased to 60 cases a month as people got aware besides they trust in getting relief once they register the complaints. She mentioned that complaint registration was very simple in which complainants can register a complaint on a simple paper and also through online procedure. She said that ombudsperson offices were promoting the culture of “stand up and speak up for the rights”. She said that irrespective of any gender people can register their complaints against the harassment in her office.

Federal Insurance Ombudsman Dr Khawar Jameel stressed the need of creating awareness about insurance at grass-root level. He said that people should read the insurance policies completely before signing it. He mentioned that 93 percent of cases were cleared in only two months and give relief to the public. “I believe in resolving the issues with mutual agreement between the two parties instead of lingering the cases on legal grounds”, he said, adding that he did not want to fight with insurance industry as well, rather to create awareness and bridge gap between the public and insurance industry. Further, he mentioned that in two months time public awareness programmes on radio and TV were started in which awareness is created to approach his office to get relief.

Head of claim division EFU Life Insurance Dr Ammara Moazzam said that Insurance Ombudsman played a vital role in the progress and growth of the industry during the last decade. She said 80 percent of complaints were registered with the Insurance Ombudsman office and got relief from there which was proof of the public trust in the office. She said the despite awareness campaigns of one decade the share of insurance sector in GDP was only one percent which is negligible. She stressed the need of comprehensive awareness campaigns and government support to the sector. She said during the last five years EFU Life insurance paid Rs13 billion claims in almost 40,000 cases, besides creating almost 10,000 jobs.

Mian Zahid Hussain said that insurance was not given importance in Pakistan as public did not understand the importance of it in life and business. However, he suggested that the insurance companies should work on their insurance policies and products.

Muhammad Ali Mian said that the misconception about the insurance was needed to be cleared. He said the majority of public considered insurance as non-Islamic; this issue needed to be resolved so that insurance industry could grow. He stressed the need of creating awareness along with development of better insurance policies and products for the development of the insurance industry.