The family of a victim, who was killed in the Baldia factory fire three years ago, holds his picture at a memorial service for the victims. Three years have passed since the country’s worst industrial disaster but the court proceedings have yet to be initiated due to delays in the investigation process. PHOTO: FILE
Additional District and Sessions Judge (West) Maqbool Memon, who recently took up the case following his appointment at the trial court, expressed displeasure over the report's non-submission. Responding to the court's displeasure, investigating officer SI Jahanzeb Khan pledged the report will be furnished on the next hearing.
The September 2012 inferno had resulted in the deaths of 259 people. Despite the passage of three years, however, the trial of the case is yet to be initiated owing to delayed investigations.
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So far, two different investigation reports have been submitted to the court, while the third one — a reinvestigation ordered in March this year — is awaited.
The preceding judge, Naushaba Kazi, who was hearing the case since the beginning, had first sought the reinvestigation report on August 1. However, investigators kept asking for more time at subsequent hearings.
On Monday, SI Khan told the judge that reinvestigation was nearly complete as the high-level team probing the case had returned to the country after recording statements of the accused factory owners residing abroad. The judge, after listening to the officer, adjourned the hearing till January 26, 2016.
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During the hearing, gatekeepers and other employees of the factory were present in court while the factory owners, through their counsel, moved an application seeking condonation for not appearing, which the judge approved.
Once the third investigation report is submitted, the case will move towards the indictment stage after which the trial will formally begin.
There are around a thousand witnesses named in the second charge-sheet of the case submitted by investigators.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 29th, 2015.
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