Orient labs: Court to hear proceedings today

No hearing due to strike to protest security lapse at judicial lockup.

LAHORE:

Additional District and Sessions Judge Malik Tariq Mehmood Zargham on Monday adjourned till Tuesday (today) arguments on post-arrest bail petition of a director of Orient Labs accused of negligence that cost 26 people their lives.

The hearing was adjourned due to a lawyers’ strike in protest at security lapses at judicial lockup, where a prisoner gunned down another on Saturday. The prosecution will advance arguments on Tuesday (today).

Petitioner Zubair Iqbal, has said that he was innocent and wrongly implicated in the case. He has said that the incident was a misfortune and not a result of negligence.

He has also said that nothing incriminating had been recovered from him. He also said the offence of murder did not apply in the case and that all other offences he was charged with were bail-able.

The FIR was registered by Inspector Muhammad Ashraf Sindhu of Sabzazar police station against Orient Labs Chief Executive Zaheer Iqbal and Directors Zafar Iqbal and Zubair Iqbal on charges of negligence.  He said that he was on patrol duty when an emergency call came through 15 reporting a blast had occurred at Orient Labs Factory. He said on visiting the scene he learnt that the entire factory and two adjacent buildings had collapsed.

He said dozens of workers had been trapped underneath the rubble. He said rescue teams were called and the operation to pull out the injured then started.

He said, Khalid Habib and Rana Amjad, owners of the adjacent buildings had told police that they had submitted several applications to shift the factory to another place.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 3^rd, 2012.