Plea by Baldia co-accused against ATC warrants dismissed

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Wednesday dismissed applications filed by four co-accused nominated in the Baldia factory fire case to set aside the non-bailable warrants issued for their arrests by an anti-terrorism court (ATC).

The SHC division bench headed by Justice Naimatullah Phulpoto after hearing arguments of the counsel, for a reason to be recorded later, dismissed the applications.

Ali Hasan Qadri, Umar Hasan Qadri, Dr Abdul Sattar and Iqbal Adeeb Khanum submitted in court that their names were cleared by the police and the joint investigation team probing the factory fire case, yet the ATC issued arrest warrants against them. Their counsels, Anwar Mansoor Khan and Hassan Sabir, maintained that the applicants had conducted business transactions with the factory’s owners for the purchase of a new factory in Hyderabad which were paid for through cheques.

The applicants were said to have no connection with the case as no allegations were attributed to them in neither the JIT’s report, nor in the confessional statement of the case’s main accused, Abdul Rehman alias Bhola, argued the counsels.

They asserted that the trial court could not proceed against them when their names had been cleared in the investigation, and requested the court to wave aside the arrest warrants. However, special prosecutor Sajid Mehboob maintained that the fresh charge-sheet was submitted on recommendations sought by the JIT, adding, that the trial court could take cognisance of the co-accused role.

Abdul Rehman, a former sector in-charge of the Muttahida Quami Movement, is said to have confessed that the Baldia factory was set on fire on direction of former in-charge of MQM’s Karachi Tanzeemi Committee, Hammad Siddiqui, after owners refused to pay Rs250 million as extortion money. As many as 259 factory workers were burnt alive while many others sustained injured in the fire that erupted in the factory on September 11, 2012.