Flames and fumes

The court decision proved that the Baldia factory fire was an act of terrorism rather than an accident

At long last, the court decision in the Baldia factory fire case is here. It took no less than eight years for the families of as many as 264 people – who were burnt alive or suffocated to death in Pakistan’s deadliest industrial inferno – to get some sense of closure. On Tuesday, an anti-terrorism court in Karachi sentenced MQM workers Abdul Rehman Bhola and Zubair Charya to death – convicting the two on a total of 11 counts – for torching the garments manufacturing factory by using a certain chemical over non-payment of extortion money worth Rs250 million demanded of the factory owners. Of more than one thousand workers present in the factory at that unfortunate hour, 264 were consumed by the flames and fumes while 60 others were left incapacitated to varying degrees. 

Four gatekeepers of the factory were convicted of facilitating the carnage and sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for life on two counts, besides being slapped with fines. They were also ordered to pay Rs27,77,353 as blood money to the families of each victim. The court, however, acquitted MQM leader Rauf Siddiqui, who was then minister for commerce and industries in Sindh province, and three others. The court also issued perpetual arrest warrants for Hammad Siddiqui – the then chairman of the MQM’s influential Tanzeemi Committee in whose name the extortion money was demanded – and a Hyderabad-based businessman who allegedly acted as a middle-man over the extortion deal between MQM and factory owner Abdul Aziz Bhaila and his sons, Arshad and Shahid.

The court decision proved that the fire at Karachi’s Ali Enterprises on September 11, 2012 was an act of terrorism rather than an accident as was being thought of initially – in fact being portrayed on purpose due to political pressure. Even the investigation in the initial years kept revolving around finding any technical fault or any negligence on the part of the factory operators. So much so that an FIR had been registered against the factory owners who had left Karachi for Larkana – where they were reported to have obtained protective bail – before flying out to Dubai. It was not until a joint investigation team was formed after three years of the incident that the case took a new turn and the names of Bhola and Charya surfaced who made startling revelations about the fire. 

The court decision did lead to the conviction of six accused, but all of them were executors. Who masterminded the terror activity remains unanswered. The dots can, however, be easily connected to draw approximate conclusions in the context. At the very best, the court issued perpetual warrant of arrest for Hammad Siddiqui, who was named by Bhola to have directly given him orders for the arson attack. One hopes that when and if Hammad Siddiqui – whose whereabouts are a mystery – is arrested, we will be able to see a lot of gaps filled up and a lot of influentials exposed, formally. 

Among the major conflagrations in recorded history, the Baldia factory tragedy holds the grim distinction of being the deadliest industrial fire in Pakistan. It was thus expected to have led to a drastic overhaul of the laws governing working conditions in industrial units in the country. Unfortunately though, there has been no progress as regards improvement in the safety conditions at the workplace to prevent such accidents in the future. If an incident as big as this cannot serve as a watershed, then what would?

Coming back to the case, the court judgment has still to go through the appeals stage at superior courts – something that would cause further delay in the dispensation of justice. One would only want to mention here that justice delayed is justice denied.