Daily Times

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court has summoned the investigation officer of Baldia factory inferno case along with record of the case in a bail petition field by Zubair alias Charya, one of key the suspects in the case.

A division bench of the high court directed the prosecution and defense side to come prepared to forward their arguments on the bail petition.

Zubair has approached the high court though his counsel after an anti-terrorism court had dismissed his bail plea.

Baldia factory fire was one of the worst incidents in Pakistan’s history. Ali Enterprises caught fire on September 11, 2012, which claimed the lives of 259 workers.

Though it was initially declared an accident, however, the Baldia factory inferno case took a dramatic turn on February 2015 when a report by Rangers claimed that the Muttahida Qaumi Movement was behind the deadly fire.

Several JITs were formed but they failed to make a major breakthrough. However, the investigators were able to declare it a criminal act after recording the statements of the factory owners.

Following the arrest, the officials investigating the case vowed to formulate a JIT to interrogate Bhola.

The JIT had alleged that former MQM Karachi Tanzeemi Committee chief Hammad Siddiqui, his front man and then Baldia Town sector in-charge Bhola, Zubair Charya and three unidentified persons were behind the plot of setting the factory on fire.

It nominated 13 suspects, including the factory’s owners, gatekeepers and some other employees, in the case.

Subsequently, the police conducted investigation in the light of the JIT report and filed a supplementary investigation report, charge-sheeting Hammad Siddiqui, Bohla, Zubair and their other accomplices and the factory owners.

Meanwhile, an anti-terrorism court adjourned till July 27 the hearing of a case related to the killing of Shahid Hamid, a former managing director of the city’s power utility,

The adjourned the hearing due to absence of the lawyers.

The court is conducting trial of Minhaj Qazi who was arrested in February last year.

According to the charge-sheet against the accused that Qazi named the MQM chief and other senior leaders of the party including Nadeem Nusrat, and Sohail Zaidi as the people on whose directives the murder was carried out.

The court has been issuing non-bailable warrants for the arrest of MQM chief Altaf Hussain, Nadeem Nusrat, Rashid Akhtar alias Shaikh, Athar Hussian and Sohail Zaidi.

Saulat Mirza, the main suspect behind killing of the former KESC chief, was convicted of the murder in 1998 and hanged.

Minhaj Qazi was produced before a judicial magistrate concerned on May 14, 2016 when the widow and son of deceased Shahid Hamid identified him among several suspects as one of the shooters involved in the murder.

Qazi was arrested by the Rangers on February 3 and kept under preventive detention for 90 days. Later, he was handed over to the police who formally arrested him in the Shahid Hamid murder case.

Published in Daily Times, July 13^th , 2017.