Factory collapse: Orient Labs bail case adjourned again

Hearing scheduled for Tuesday, petitioner’s counsel says he’s not available.

LAHORE:

The bail plea of the owners of Orient Labs was again adjourned on Monday, as the judge and petitioner’s counsel continued sparring over the scheduling of the proceedings, now set for Tuesday.

Rana Muhammad Nafees, a junior associate of Sardar Khurram Latif Khosa, the lawyer for the owners of Orient Labs, appeared before the court on Monday seeking a two-day adjournment as Khosa was busy.

Additional District and Sessions Judge Chaudhry Nazir Ahmed responded that the Orient Labs owners faced serious charges over the collapse of their factory on Multan Road, resulting in the deaths of 26 people. “The case must be decided, rather than having adjournment upon adjournment,” he said. “Your behaviour is not admirable.”

Nafees responded that it was simply a case of Khosa being busy and not a tactic on their behalf to delay the hearing. The judge said that if he was so busy, Khosa should not have taken the case. He went on to tell a humorous story about a blind man whose shawl gets stolen one winter and ends who up camping at the town graveyard. When townsfolk ask the blind man what he’s doing, he says he’s waiting for the thieves, as everyone ends up at the graveyard one day.

“This matter will have to be decided one day,” the judge said, and adjourned proceedings for one day. A short while later, Khosa turned up to plead for another day’s delay, as he was due to appear before the Supreme Court on Tuesday. The judge denied his request.

During proceedings last Friday, Khosa had stormed out of the courtroom after Judge Ahmed had refused to grant him extra time to study a report on the factory collapse prepared by the chief secretary.

Orient Labs Chief Executive Zaheer Iqbal and Directors Zafar Iqbal and Zubair Iqbal are currently on interim bail. In a first information report registered at Sabzazar police station on the complaint of Inspector M Ashraf Sindhu, the three are accused of crimes under Sections 302 (murder), 324 (attempted murder), 290 (public nuisance), 291 (repeated public nuisance), 427 (mischief) and 149 (unlawful assembly) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 21^st, 2012.