The Punjab government is going to pay financial aid of Rs 800,000 each to the families of the 22 tourists, who had lost their lives in the Murree blizzard on Friday night.
On Sunday, the Punjab government decided to pay financial aid for heirs of Murree tragedy victims in a meeting which was held in Gharial under the chairmanship of Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar. During the meeting, Buzdar said the financial aid was not a cure for grief “but we share the pain of the bereaved families”. The Punjab CM announced financial compensation of Rs 17.6 million for the heirs.
He also directed officials to take action against hotels for overcharging tourists who were stranded because of the snowstorm. Punjab Law Minister Raja Basharat, provincial government spokesperson Hasaan Khawar, chief secretary, senior member of the Board of Revenue Punjab, Rawalpindi commissioner, and the IGP were among those present in the meeting.
Read more: Restriction on tourists entering Murree extended until January 17
Moreover, on Saturday, while expressing shock and grief over the deaths of tourists in Murree, Prime Minister Imran Khan ordered an inquiry into the tragedy and called preparing regulations to avert such incidents in the future.
According to Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry, Murree received unprecedented snowfall over the past 48 hours and along with it a record influx of tourists, which was next to impossible to handle for the local administration.
The government had been promoting tourism but hundreds of thousands of people reached at one point in less than 24 hours. As per the commissioner, the record-breaking snowfall occurred after decades creating such a challenging situation when at least 22 people died of cold.
However, as the CM Punjab has taken actions, Fawad Chaudhary said, “The government is fully alive to the problems and standing with the people in this difficult time. The situation was improving as all the relevant departments were busy overcoming it.”
