KARACHI: An antiterrorism court on Tuesday reserved its order till July 11 on an application of the owners of Ali Enterprises — the Baldia factory where around 250 workers had died in a fire in 2012 — for recording their testimony through a video link due to security concerns.

Arshad Bhaila and Shahid Bhaila, two brothers who owned the Ali Enterprises garments factory, along with their father Abdul Aziz Bhaila were initially booked and arrested in a case pertaining to allegedly committing premeditated murder and negligence towards the workers’ safety at the workplace, etc.

In February 2013, they were granted bail by the Sindh High Court as the investigating officer recommended dropping the charge of premeditated murder in the case. However, after obtaining post-arrest bail, they fled the country citing alleged life threats. In 2015, a joint investigation team probing the case met them in Dubai and recorded their statement.

On Tuesday, the ATC-VII judge, who is conducting the trial in the judicial complex inside the central prison, took up an application moved by a Rangers prosecutor for recording statements of the factory owners through videoconferencing from the Pakistani mission’s office in the UAE.

Prosecutor says owners unable to travel to Pakistan due to threats to their lives

The prosecutor, Sajid Mehmood Shaikh, stated in the plea that the trial court had declared the Bhaila brothers as prosecution witnesses.

He added that as they had fled abroad they were unable to travel to Pakistan for recording their statements in the case due to threats and danger to their lives.

The prosecutor submitted that recording their statements from the Pakistani consulate general in Dubai through a video link was necessary to meet the ends of justice.

He asked the court to allow his application and issue directives to the authorities concerned for making arrangements of recording their testimonies.

Counsel for accused Muttahida Qaumi Movement lawmaker Rauf Siddiqui, Dr Abdul Sattar and Iqbal Adeeb Khanum submitted that they had no objection if the application was approved.

However, counsel for the detained accused Abdul Rehman alias Bhola and M. Zubair alias Chariya of the MQM opposed the application and prayed for its dismissal being “meritless”.

After hearing arguments from all sides, the judge reserved his order on the plea till July 11.

The court also sent a letter to the DIG-West to nominate a focal person for the SSP Investigation-I in place of IO Raja Jahangir, who had been reverted following a departmental inquiry in some other case.

Also, counsel Rana Khalid Hussain appeared in court and moved an application stating that the provincial government had assigned the present case to him as special public prosecutor in addition to prosecutor Shaikh for representing the paramilitary force.

Nine accused have been charged with setting the Baldia factory on fire with the help of its four gatekeepers — Shahrukh, Fazal Ahmed, Arshad Mehmood and Ali Mohammad — on Sept 11, 2012.

According to the prosecution, the accused acted on the instruction of the then head of the MQM’s Karachi Tanzeemi Committee, Hammad Siddiqui, since the factory owners failed to pay “protection money”.

A case was registered under Sections 302 (premeditated murder), 324 (attempted murder), 337 (Shajjah), 384 (punishment for extortion), 385 (putting person in fear of injury in order to commit extortion), 386 (extortion by putting person in fear of death or of grievous hurt), 435 (mischief by fire or explosive substance with intent to cause damage to amount of one hundred rupees), 436 (mischief by fire or explosive substance with intent to destroy house, etc), 34 (common intention), 109 (abetment) of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 7 (acts of terrorism) of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 at the SITE-B police station.

Published in Dawn, July 10th, 2019