Daily Times

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court has directed the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to file its reply to a petition of provincial law minister Ziaul Hassan Lanjhar against his persecution at the hands of NAB officials.

A division bench of the court while expressing annoyance over the absence of the law minister adjourned the hearing till a date to be fixed by court office later.

Earlier, the court had granted him bail against a surety of Rs500, 000 in connection with an inquiry being carried out by the NAB into the alleged embezzlement of Rs120 development funds.

At the outset, Farooq H Naiq, the applicant’s counsel, informed the judges that the incumbent law minister couldn’t appear before it since he was busy in meeting of parliamentary committee meeting. He pleaded the judges to grant him exemption from today’s hearing and adjourn it.

Meanwhile another bench issued notice to NAB’s public prosecutor over his absence during the hearing of bail petition filed by Zubair alias Charya, a suspect who has been behind bars in a case relating to Baldia factory fire that burnt over 250 workers alive.

Zubair approached the high court 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.