KARACHI: Irked by the failure of the authorities concerned to decide the fate of the Baldia Town factory fire case, a sessions court on Saturday asked police authorities whether they were filing a new FIR as recommended by the report of a joint investigation team.

Additional District and Sessions Judge (west) Maqbool Ahmed Memon ordered the police to come up on July 16 with a proper reply whether the authorities were lodging a new FIR or filing a supplementary charge-sheet. The case will be tried by an antiterrorism court if the authorities decided to lodge a new FIR under the antiterrorism law.

Initially, the police had charge-sheeted the owner of the ill-fated industrial unit Abdul Aziz Bhaila, his two sons — Arshad Bhaila and Shahid Bhaila — a general manager and some gatekeepers in the tragic incident. On a directive of a magistrate, the then managing director of SITE Ltd, Abdul Rasheed Solangi, director-labour Zahid Gulzar Shaikh, additional controller-civil defence Ghulam Akbar and chief inspector-electrical Amjad Ali were also named in the case for their alleged negligence.

However, the reinvestigation of the case was ordered in March 2015 by a JIT after the case took a dramatic turn when a 2013 JIT report was submitted in the Sindh High Court in February 2015 by Rangers, revealing that the factory was set on fire after its owners failed to pay protection money.

On Feb 13, this year police informed the court that the JIT had completed its report and it was being sent to the provincial home department for approval.

On March 5, the investigation officer, SP Sajid Sadozai, through a progress report informed the court that the factory fire was a planned terrorist activity and the JIT recommended that a new case be lodged under the antiterrorism law against former chief of the MQM’s Karachi Tanzeemi Committee Hammad Siddiuqi, Abdul Rehman alias Bhola, Zubair, Ali Hasan, Umar Hassan, Abdul Sattar, Iqbal Adeeb Khanum and four unidentified persons.

Since then, the police have not informed the court about the fate of the case. It has submitted a copy of the JIT report in court and not the original document.

When the case came up for hearing on Saturday, the court was informed that the JIT report was still with the home department for further directions.

The judge deplored that the home department and the police were exhibiting a non-serious attitude towards the much-delayed trial of the case. The court also returned a copy of the JIT report to police and said it did not ask for the JIT report but a supplementary investigation report.

Over 250 workers were killed in a devastating fire that engulfed a multi-storey garment factory in Baldia Town in September 2012.

Published in Dawn, May 29th, 2016