State prima facie shielded influential persons in Baldia factory fire case, remarks SHC

The Sindh High Court (SHC) has directed an additional Sindh prosecutor general to go through the evidence of the Baldia factory fire case and advise the prosecutor general whether an appeal against acquittal ought to have been filed by the state against those who had been acquitted by the trial court in the arson case.

Hearing the appeals of Muttahida Qaumi Movement activists and Ali Enterprises employees against their conviction in the factory fire case, a division bench of the SHC headed by Justice Mohammad Karim Khan Agha took exception to the failure of the Rangers to submit comments with regard to filing of appeals against the acquittal of other accused in the case by the trial court.

The high court had on a previous hearing enquired a Rangers prosecutor as to why appeals against the acquittal of some accused, including Muttahida Qaumi Movement leader Abdul Rauf Siddiqui, in the Baldia factory fire case had not been filed by them.

The SHC had observed that the court might itself take notice of it if it considered that the acquittal appeal ought to have been filed and the so-called influential accused had been deliberately and intentionally shielded by the state.

The bench observed that it seemed that big fish had been protected in the case by not filing appeals against their acquittal by the trial court.

The high court remarked that the Rangers special prosecutor had failed to seek instructions whether or not appeal shall be filed against those who were acquitted as prima facie influential persons were being deliberately shielded by the state and there might be sufficient evidence to warrant appeal against their acquittal.

The Sindh additional prosecutor general was directed by the SHC to go through the evidence and advise the prosecutor general on whether an appeal against the acquittals ought to have been filed against the accused who had been exonerated, and submit a response on next date of hearing.

A counsel for the appellants had submitted that their clients were minor accused in the entire scheme of the offence and they had been convicted by the trial court while the main accused who were influential persons had been acquitted and yet the state had not filed appeals against their acquittal.

Activists of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) Abdul Rehman, alias Bhola, Mohammad Zubair, alias Charya, and some factory employees have filed appeals in the SHC against their conviction in the Baldia factory arson case.

Rehman and Zubair were sentenced to death while four of the factory’s gatekeepers — Shahrukh, Fazal Ahmed, Arshad Mehmood and Ali Mohammad — were sentenced on September 22 last year to life imprisonment by an anti-terrorism court that found them guilty of the charges of murder, extortion, arson and terrorism.

MQM leader Rauf Siddiqui, who was accused of being involved in the incident, was, however, acquitted by the court for want of evidence, along with other co-accused Umar Hasan Qadri, Dr Abdul Sattar Khan and Iqbal Adeeb Khanum. Then MQM Tanzeemi Committee head Hammad Siddiqui and Ali Hasan Qadri were declared as proclaimed offenders in the case.

According to the prosecution, the factory was set on fire by MQM leaders and activists over non-payment of Rs250 million in extortion. The main accused, Rehman, had admitted in a confessional statement that the Ali Enterprises garment factory in Baldia Town was set on fire on the order of former MQM Karachi Tanzeemi Committee in-charge Hammad Siddiqui for the factory owners’ refusal to pay Rs250 million in extortion.

Around 260 factory workers were burnt alive while many others were injured on September 11, 2012, after the factory was set on fire. Appellants Zubair and Rehman have laid the blame on the factory owners for the casualties in the fire in their appeals. They have alleged that the factory doors were closed when the fire broke out on the “orders of the owners”. “There was no emergency exit for the workers [when the fire broke out],” the accused submitted in the appeal. They added that factory workers perished in the fire due to the “negligence of the factory owners and related departments”.

Both the MQM workers also maintained that in the initial report, the factory owners were held responsible for the fire. They added that the “real culprits” were acquitted in the joint investigation report.

“The court did not scrutinise the evidence,” claimed Rehman and Zubair. They also alleged that no CCTV footage was included as evidence in the trial court and appealed that the verdict by the ATC be declared illegal.