Accuracy of JIT report to be determined: SHC

Karachi
The Sindh High Court clarified on Tuesday that the veracity of a report of the joint investigation team (JIT) on the involvement of a political party in the Baldia factory fire would be determined by a competent forum.
The clarification came when the counsel of the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (Piler), one of the petitioners who had sought a judicial inquiry into the fire, requested the court to clarify the situation following the submission of the JIT report by Rangers.
The Rangers’ deputy attorney general had produced a JIT report on a suspect, Rizwan Qureshi, before the court in compliance with the directives that the heads of the ISI, the MI, the IB, the FIA and the Rangers should submit their investigation reports, if any, conducted in relation with the Baldia factory fire on September 11, 2012 in which 289 people were killed.
Qureshi, who was arrested by police in an illegal weapon possession case, had confessed to killing over two dozen people including policemen, sanitary workers and political and religious activists in the last 20 years.
The Rangers law officer had submitted that Qureshi, a sanitary sub-inspector of Saddar Town and a political party activist, had disclosed that the Ali Enterprise garment factory was set on fire by activists of his political party when its owner had refused to pay them Rs200 million.
Piler counsel Faisal Siddiqui submitted that there had been some misunderstanding about the report. He added that media reports were creating an impression that the JIT report was prepared in connection with the Baldia factory fire case. He added the report itself revealed that it pertained to the suspect’s involvement in an illegal weapon case registered with the Artillery Maidan police station.
The deputy attorney general submitted the report was prepared by the law enforcement agencies and its importance could not be ruled out. However, he added, if anyone had any reservations over it, then a competent forum could be approached for determining its veracity.
An SHC division bench headed by Chief Justice Maqbool Baqar observed that it was rightly pointed out by the petitioner’s counsel that the report was an outcome of an investigation into some other crime and not the result of a probe into the Baldia factory fire.
The court directed the media to be careful and precise while discussing sub-judice matters in future. It also clarified that the veracity and relevance of the report would be determined by a competent forum before which it could be placed for this purpose.
The report was submitted before the SHC on February 6. The terror suspect had disclosed before the JIT that he was informed by a Baldia Town activist of the political party that a party senior official had demanded Rs200 million through his front-man from the factory owners in August 2012.
He had said the factory owners met the activist of Baldia Town Asghar Baig and told him that someone had demanded extortion in the name of the party. The activist and his brother Majid took the factory owner to the party office and met with the then in-charge of the organising committee upon which they said that this matter was not from their side and later suspended the activist of Baldia Town. After the suspension of Asghar Baig, Rehman Bhola was given the task to collect the extortion money and on refusal of payment, Rehman Bhola and his unidentified accomplice threw a chemical substance in the factory that caused the fire.
Rizwan had further disclosed that on the orders of a party high official, an ex-minister went to the police station and registered a case against the factory owners. He said that the ex-minister used his influence to get the bail of factory owners cancelled. He said that the CID had arrested Majid, a brother of Asghar, but on the instruction of the political party, the factory owners gave a statement before the police that Majid was not involved in the incident and he was subsequently released.