SHC upholds MQM men’s death sentence in Baldia factory fire case

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Monday dismissed two Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) activists’ appeals against their death sentences in the Baldia factory fire case.

An anti-terrorism court had awarded Abdul Rehman, alias Bhola, and Zubair, alias Charya, the death sentence on arson, extortion and terrorism charges for causing 264 factory workers’ deaths.

The SHC, however, set aside the life sentences of factory employees and gatekeepers Shahrukh, Fazal Ahmed, Arshad Mehmood and Ali Mohammad, saying the prosecution could not produce any evidence against them for committing the offences they were charged with.

According to the prosecution, MQM leaders and activists torched the factory over the non-payment of Rs250 million in extortion. Main accused Rehman had admitted in a confessional statement that the Ali Enterprises garment factory in Baldia Town was torched on former MQM Karachi Tanzeemi Committee (KTC) incharge Hammad Siddiqui’s instructions.

More than 260 factory workers had been burnt alive and many others had suffered injuries on September 11, 2012, when the factory had been set on fire.

Issuing their detailed judgment on the appeals, an SHC division bench comprising Justice Mohammad Karim Khan Agha and Justice Amjad Ali Bohio took exception to the police investigation.

The bench pointed out that it is extremely unlikely that such a serious decision having serious consequences of burning down a factory employing over 1,000 workers could have been made without the sanction of the highest leadership of the MQM.

The court noted that Siddiqui continues to remain outside as a proclaimed offender and has not been extradited to face justice for over a decade.

The judges directed the Sindh police chief, the interior secretary and the home secretary to appear in person or through some responsible persons who are aware of the efforts to bring Siddiqui to justice, and file a progress report on September 18.

The bench said the prosecution witnesses’ evidence and Rehman’s confession provide a believable, corroborated and unbroken chain of events from Rehman demanding extortion at Siddiqui’s behest from the factory owners, whose failure to comply resulted in Zubair and four absconding co-accused burning the factory down by throwing some form of accelerant in the warehouse that led to the fire.

The court said Zubair obstructed the workers from leaving the factory, seemingly enjoying the drama by smoking, smiling and acting relaxed, and not helping to put out the fire, which he said could not be put out, leading to the factory being burnt down.

The judges said 264 men and women were murdered by either burning alive or by asphyxiation through smoke inhalation. Validating the prosecution witnesses’ belated statements, the bench observed that the reason why the statements were given so late was because of the MQM’s involvement in the incident.

The court said though the MQM is a legitimate political party with parliamentary seats and a large support bank in urban Sindh, certain elements within it — as most Karachi residents know — had a propensity for violence since the party’s inception when so ordered by the MQM high command.

The judges said one of the party’s fundraising methods was extortion, while target killing was also not off the table, as MQM activist Saulat Khan was found involved in the murder of the former head of the then Karachi Electric Supply Company, and others in founding party leader Dr Imran Farooq’s murder in London, showing that the MQM’s militant elements had a long reach.

The bench said these two cases were well-documented and need no further elaboration, along with MQM supporters’ widespread disorder in Saddar after MQM leader Altaf Hussain’s provocative telephonic speech on August 22, 2016.

The court reprimanded the police for its abject failure in thoroughly investigating the KTC’s other members who often met as a body at MQM headquarters Nine Zero. The judges said this case revealed a complete breakdown in the investigation process, with apparently, the real culprits being protected through a misleading FIR, the witnesses not coming forward to tell the truth out of fear and the police not being keen on recording any statement revealing collection of extortion.

The bench said even a high-powered commission declined to carry out expert chemical tests to conclusively uncover the cause of the fire at the factory owners’ cost.

The court noted down in the judgment that organisations were competing to get credit for handing out compensation to the heirs of the deceased instead of mourning the deaths and ensuring that no such incident ever happened again.

The judges said they were quite confident that had Rizwan Qureshi’s confession to the joint investigation team not been disclosed to the SHC by chance three years after the fire, the real culprits would have got away.

The bench said the police seemed to lack the will to conduct a rigorous and thorough investigation to get to the truth, and they instead took the path of the least resistance by blaming the factory owners and the departments responsible for safety at factories.

The court directed the factory owners to ensure adequate safety measures and the standard operating procedure in case of fire and other emergency situations at the factory, which was to be checked by the government.

The judges directed all the provincial government departments to make the required safety checks at every factory operating in the city, and force them to cease their operations until they meet the required health and safety standards.

The bench also dismissed the state appeals against MQM leader Rauf Siddiqui’s acquittal for want of evidence, along with other co-accused Umar Hasan Qadri, Dr Abdul Sattar Khan and Iqbal Adeeb Khanum.