KARACHI: Owners and managers of M/s Ali Enterprises are understandably being blamed for the horrible loss of life on Sept 11 fire at the Baldia garment factory, but does that absolve the bigger players and the 16 departments responsible for checking and cross-checking of the blame?

Spread over 4,460 acres, the Sindh Industrial & Trading Estate (SITE), Karachi claims itself to be one the largest industrial trading estates in Asia boasting over 1,928 industrial units with Ali Enterprises being one export-oriented unit built with due approval of the building department of SITE. Owners of the factory relied on a contractor for human resource over the years.

There were said to be over 1,200 workers present in the unit at the time of fire, but the labour department claims that the factory was not even registered with them. Isn’t condoning such practices — depriving workers of appointment letters, social security, EOBI benefits, worker welfare board/fund, group insurance, gratuity, pensions, etc — a criminal act?

Temperatures that deformed steel bars in the RCC structure may also have incinerated many bodies. Desperate families of many missing workers are still going around all over the city looking for their loved ones. Does anyone realise that the families unable to find bodies of their loved ones may also be deprived of paltry compensation?

We inherited Factory’s Act from the British who had little or no interest in the well-being of Indian workers — yet it remains a good framework to protect our working people.

According to Factories Act, 1934 as amended in 1997, Section 10, subsection (1) reads, “Inspectors. — The Provincial Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, appoint such persons as it thinks fit to be Inspectors for the purposes of this Act within such local limits as it may assign to them respectively”. The subsection (4) reads, “Every District Magistrate shall be an Inspector for his district”.

Section 25 regarding “Precautions in case of fire” — subsections read

(3) In every factory the doors affording exit from any room shall not be locked or fastened so that they can be easily and immediately opened from inside while any person is within the room, and all such doors, unless they are of the sliding type, shall be constructed to open outwards or where the door is between two rooms, in the direction of the nearest exit from the building and such door shall not be locked or obstructed while work is being carried on in the room and shall at all times be kept free from any obstruction.

(4) In every factory every window, door or other exit affording means of escape in case of fire, other than means of exit in ordinary use, shall be distinctively marked in a language understood by the majority of the workers and in red letters of adequate size or by some other effective and clearly understood sign.

(5) In every factory there shall be provided effective and clearly audible means of giving warning in case of fire to every person employed therein.

(6) A free passage-way giving access to each means of escape in case of fire shall be maintained for the use of all workers in every room of the factory.

(7) In every factory wherein more than ten workers are ordinarily employed in any place above the ground floor, or explosive or highly inflammable materials are used or stored, effective measures shall be taken to ensure that all the workers are familiar with the means of escape in case of fire and have been adequately trained in the routine to be followed in such case.

The authority of district magistrate better known to us as deputy commissioner is in addition to the powers of sixteen other departments to scrutinise factory affairs.

Managing director or secretary of SITE, labour department, Employees Old-Age Benefits Institution, Sindh Employees’ Social Security Institution, electricity and health inspectors, excise and sales tax inspectors and other functionaries regularly visit all such units, because they are very lucrative! Thirty five members of SITE general body happen to be top former or serving bureaucrats of the province, while 25 others represent some of its very rich tenants.

The deputy commissioner draws his authority from the provincial government. Being a human being, he can make a mistake at an instance but the ones emanating out of the status quo over violations such as those of the Factory’s Act should be considered a failure in governance. We all know who has been governing Karachi for the past 20 years and therefore the responsibility for safety of the human life and property and any lapse thereof cannot be devolved just over some lowly functionaries in the district.It was on Sept 1, 2007 that the then newly built Shershah bridge collapsed just at a short distance from Ali Enterprises, killing more than 10 people.

At that time, too, the tragedy was termed the biggest engineering disaster in the country’s history. People demanded an inquiry and several were initiated. The National Highway Authority, National Logistics Cell, sub-contractor and the consultants ECIL were all charged for the loss of life. However, on May 15, 2012, additional district and sessions judge (west), Syed Ikram-ur-Rehman, acquitted all the accused, citing that the prosecution remained unable to bring on record any solid evidence against them!

That was just another shameful story of tampering with evidence, delay to defeat justice, moral quality of our prosecuting officers and officers of the courts. Over and over again — not a single crime against the people in the history of this nation has been punished.

Unfortunately, less than four per cent of our workforce stands registered or given the right to form unions, guaranteed by our constitution. While Rs420 buy health insurance for the family of a worker, such measures by the authorities strip workers of any claim or share in the business they toil 12 hours a day.

Look at any garment factory in Karachi you will find windows fixed with grills and just one narrow exit. When our elite flies from Karachi to Islamabad on a two-hour flight, each becomes entitled to $100,000 in compensation in case of an accident and loss of life. Let’s not try to compensate people with peanuts who toiled for us all their lives.

Compensations should be rationalised according to the crimes committed against the Factory’s Act with penalties levied to compensate according to the transgressions. M/s SITE and the SITE Association should be penalised for their lapse, along with directors of Ali Enterprises. The Sindh government must match amounts raised to pay for the misdeeds of its own officials and the rulers! Courts for once must not hide behind the so-called lack of evidence. Such compensations could go into several million rupees for each of the victim.

There is no point playing the blame game! However, our ruling elite can regain some of its lost respect by setting up an independent inquiry with a definite timeframe — not like the one constituted after the Shershah bridge collapse, but men and women of indisputable integrity with a 30-day mandate.