In a press statement Siraj Kassam Teli, Chairman Businessmen Group has said that Insha Allah the initial disbursement of Pay Orders will be made by the President of Pakistan , Mr. Asif Ali Zardari on 29th of January 2010 exactly one month after the unfortunate incident and immediately after that this process will continue at Karachi Chamber for all the affected parties till the completion of handing over pay orders to those whose final assessment is below Rs. 1.5 million, said Siraj Teli and the process of making these pay orders has already started in the National Bank as they have received statements and cheques duly signed by the signatories accordingly which is 1437 affected parties and the amount is Rs. 730,227,212.

Karachi Chamber by the Grace of Almighty Allah and as per the commitment has completed the scrutiny and assessment of the losses/claims of the goods/stocks/cash etc. except property/ buildings of the victims of Ashura day of Boulton Market/Light House and vicinity whose claims are below Rs. 1.5 million said Siraj Teli, and the ongoing process of finalizing those, whose amounts are above 1.5 million will be made in a week and Insha Allah they will also get their pay orders as and when their cases are finalized by the Scry Committee.

Karachi Chamber altogether received over 2600 claim forms and after verification it was found that there was a lot of duplication and some were even from the people who were not affected by this incident, therefore the number came down to 1559, this was informed by Siraj Teli, and after the scrutiny of these forms by the Committees of the Managing Committee and Businessmen Group of Karachi Chamber along with representatives of the respective markets, verifying their details under oath with each and every individual concerned decided these cases which was a very hectic and lengthy exercise and consumed over 12 hours on daily basis of 60 businessmen who volunteered and the total staff of Karachi Chamber which is over 100 from the day this incident happened.

Siraj Teli, Chairman Businessmen Group and former President KCCI appreciated the role of the government which started from the day one after the incident i.e. 29th December 2010 when the Governor, Dr. Ishrat-ul-Ebad and the Minister of Interior Mr. Rehman Malik along with Dr. Farooq Sattar and Mr. Raza Haroon visited Karachi Chamber on our request and committed to compensate the affected traders.

In this process of providing relief to the victims the role of the Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah has been tremendously supportive, said Siraj Teli, by making an Official Committee for the purpose led by Zubair Motiwala and with the majority of the members being from the private sector and Karachi Chamber, and would like to personally thank the President of Pakistan Mr. Asif Ali Zardari for providing immediate time for the meeting with us on 30th December and accepting our demand of immediate initial relief of Rs. 3 billion and also the Honourable Prime Minister of Pakistan Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani for announcing of first Rs.One billion as early as 30th of December in the Cabinet Meeting in Gwadar on our request communicated by Rehman Malik, Dr. Farooq Sattar and Babar Ghouri informed Siraj Teli.

The Karachi Chamber is thankful to Dr. Zulfiqar Mirza, Home Minister of Sindh for visiting personally and after inspection in detail endorsing with 100% satisfaction and trust on the Business & Industrial Community of Karachi, said Siraj Teli and appreciating the fact that such a kind of colossal losses and involvement of thousands of traders in the incident could only be handled by the Businessmen Group of Karachi Chamber. I would like to specially appreciate the support and trust of Federal Finance Minister Mr. Shaukat Tareen and for providing the funds, said Siraj Teli.

Siraj Kassam Teli appreciates and salutes his colleagues of the Businessmen Group and the staff of Karachi Chamber for the job well done and also the great people of the affected areas, who even after suffering critically have cooperated and came down to their genuine losses under oath and proving once again that the vast majority of the traders are God fearing people and allowing to make this process transparent. The involvement of such a huge number of people in the process made sure that the transparency is maintained for above board finalization of the cases.

In the end, Siraj Kassam Teli wants to ensure the affected people that the rest of the claims will be paid and we have already made separate committee for reconstruction of the buildings as they were on 27th of December and this process will start very soon.