• Bench sets aside life term of four employees of Baldia Town industrial unit
• State appeal against acquittal of ex-minister Rauf Siddiqui, three others dismissed
• Court seeks efforts to bring MQM’s Hammad Siddiqui to justice
• Directs authorities to ensure safety checks at all factories

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Monday upheld the death penalty handed down to two workers of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement and set aside life term of four employees in the Baldia factory fire case.

The verdict was announced by the two-judge antiterrorism appellate bench, headed by Justice Mohammad Karim Khan Agha, on the 11th anniversary of the country’s deadliest industrial disaster that claimed over 260 lives on Sept 11, 2012.

The bench also dismissed an appeal filed by the state challenging the acquittal of then provincial minister for commerce and industries Rauf Siddiqui and three others by an antiterrorism court (ATC) in the same case.

The court observed that there was a complete breakdown in the investigative process of the case as prima facie the real culprits were protected initially through a misleading FIR and there seemed to be no will on the part of police to conduct a rigorous and thorough investigation and instead they blamed factory owners and departments responsible for safety.

“It is extremely unlikely that such a serious decision having severe repercussions to put the factory at fire could have been made without the sanction of the lightest leadership of MQM and police had remained unable to investigate the matter from this angle,” the bench observed in the verdict.

It stated that the then head of MQM’s Karachi Tanzeemi Committee Hammad Siddiqui “still remained outside the country as a proclaimed offender and has not been extradited to face the trial despite a lapse of over 10 years”.

The SHC directed the interior and home secretaries and inspector general of the Sindh police to inform it about the efforts to bring Mr Siddiqui to justice and also file progress reports on Sept 18.

It also ordered the Sindh chief secretary and provincial authorities concerned to ensure required safety checks on every factory operating in the metropolis and cease their operations until such factories come up to requisite health and safety standards and to complete such exercise in six months.

The bench further asked all factory owners in the city to ensure that they have adequate safety equipment and SOPs in place in case of any fire or other serious emergency at their industrial units.

Former MQM sector in-charge Abdul Rehman aka Bhola and party worker Zubair aka Chariya were sentenced to death by an ATC in September 2020 for setting the multi-storey Ali Enterprises garment factory on fire in Baldia Town on September 11, 2012.

The trial court had also handed down life imprisonment to factory’s human resource manager Shahrukh Latif and three watchmen — Fazal Ahmed, Arshad Mehmood and Mohammad Ali — in the same case.

However, the trial court had exonerated Rauf Siddiqui, Umar Hassan, Iqbal Adeel Khanum, and Dr Abdul Sattar Khan for lack of evidence from the charges of allegedly influencing the investigation and purchasing a property in Hyderabad by using the compensation amount provided by factory owners for distribution among families of the victims.

All the convicts, through their lawyers, filed appeals against the judgement of the ATC before the SHC.

The state had filed an appeal against the acquittal of the accused in April last year after the SHC had asked a prosecutor to seek instructions from authorities concerned about filing an appeal.

After hearing both sides and examining the record and proceedings of the case, the SHC upheld the capital punishment of the two main convicts.

The bench in its judgement stated that admittedly, Abdul Rehman was the in-charge of MQM’s Balida sector and Zubair was an active worker of the party and also head of the finishing department at the factory at the time of the incident and they were instrumental in burning down of factory after its owners refused to pay protection money.

It also noted that Bhola had recorded his confessional statement before a judicial magistrate within six days after his arrest and the same was found to be made voluntarily and there was no procedural irregularity while recording such a confession.

The bench further observed that all the witnesses were consistent in their evidence.

As per eyewitnesses and other reports, a chemical was thrown into the warehouse of the factory to accelerate the fire by Zubair and his four to five accomplices. It is clear from the Punjab Forensic Science Agency’s report that the fire did not break out due to a short circuit as claimed by the appellants, it added.

About the provisions of the Anti-Terrorism Act, the bench observed that these offences squarely came within the ambit of the ATA because both the appellants while committing the crime had intent, purpose and design to terrorise other factory owners and members of public over non-payment of extortion.

Regarding the death penalty, the bench noted that there were no mitigating circumstances instead there were only aggravating circumstances as 264 men and women including young children were murdered in the most agonizing fashion while 29 bodies could not be identified despite the use of DNA and buried in a kind of mass grave.

While referring to the case of four factory employees, the bench was of the view that no evidence was found to suggest that the factory manager and watchmen had committed the offences as they had no real control over people who had entered the factory and they were powerless due to the MQM’s grip over the industrial unit.

“Thus, they all are acquitted of the charge by being extended the benefit of doubt,” it added.

The bench further observed that the state’s appeal against Rauf Siddiqui and others was time barred from which no explanation had been given and even otherwise the parameters for an appeal against acquittal to succeed were much narrower than an appeal against conviction.

Referring to the reasons given by the trial court in its judgement about acquitted persons, the SHC said that when it confronted the additional prosecutor general and special prosecutor Rangers they were unable to point out any error in such reasoning.

It deplored the police for a complete breakdown in the investigation of the case.

Published in Dawn, September 12th, 2023