Daily Times

Provincial government on Thursday submitted its written reply to the Sindh High Court (SHC) regarding the announcement of compensation for families of the Baldia Town fire incident.

According to details, Sindh High Court took up the case pertaining to non-supply of announced compensation funds to families of the Baldia Town incident.

In the hearing, Sindh government submitted their reply to the high court which stated that the announcement of the provincial government regarding the provision of Rs560 Million to families of victims only remained true to newspapers as families did not receive anything.

To this, the court responded that it seems like there is no hope for the victims [to receive any sort of compensation in future].

The applicant’s lawyer said, “Provincial minister Nasir Hussain Shah had announced to give Rs560 million to families of the slain on 1st May 2018”.

Later, the high court ordered the applicant to submit a reply on it on February 28.

In September 20185, a private garment factory lit on fire and the flames ignited chemicals that were stored in the factory. Between 300 and 400 workers were inside the factory when the blaze erupted.

However, the factory inferno case took a dramatic turn on Friday 7 Feb 2015 when a report by Rangers claimed that the MQM was behind the deadly fire that claimed the lives of at least 258 factory workers.

The report prepared by a joint investigation team (JIT) was submitted to the Sindh High Court by an additional attorney general, along with a statement of the deputy assistant judge advocate general of Rangers, Major Ashfaque Ahmed.

The statement said the information had been disclosed by suspect Mohammad Rizwan Qureshi, an alleged worker of the MQM, on June 22, 2013 during a joint investigation of the factory inferno.

According to the JIT report, the MQM worker revealed that a “well-known party

high official” had demanded Rs200 million as Bhatta (extortion money) though his frontman from Ali Enterprises, the owners of the ill-fated factory, in Aug 2012.

Published in Daily Times, February 15^th 2019.