Owners, SITE, civil defence held responsible in FIR

They are accused of negligence, carelessness and malafide intentions۔

KARACHI: Not only the owners and management of Ali Enterprises but a number of government departments have been nominated as co-accused in the case registered at SITE police station about the devastating fire at the garment factory in which more than 250 men and women were burnt to death.

An FIR (343/12) lodged by the complainant, Nawaz Gondal, the station house officer of the SITE police station, holds many government departments and agencies, besides the owners -  Abdul Aziz and his sons Rashid Bhaila and Shahid Bhaila - responsible for the tragic incident. The case has been registered under sections 302, 322, 337, 435, 436, and 34 of the Pakistan Penal Code.

The departments named in the FIR include the Sindh Industrial Trading Estate, civil defence, Sindh Building Control Authority, social security, labour, electricity and environment departments.

Nawaz Gondal stated in his complaint that he “was informed about the fire in Ali Enterprises located at Plot No. F-67 while he was patrolling in the area.” He reached “the place of the incident at 6:45 pm and saw that there was a huge fire” and the factory was in big flames.” He immediately informed the higher officials over the phone and also called the fire brigade for help. “The police force and mobiles along with the fire brigade vehicles started reaching there on the orders of senior officials.”

Gondal stated that he was informed that the “factory caught fire at 6:30 pm and the fire was so severe that it could only be put out at around 2:00 pm the next day, i.e. September 12, 2012.”

He checked the building from the outside and “found that the factory had four exits and entry gates for employees out of which three were locked permanently on the instructions of factory owner, Abdul Aziz,” Gondal stated, adding that, “Aziz’s sons, Rashid Bhaila and Shahid Bhaila, and the factory administration had not arranged any exit for the employees in case of an emergency.” The complainant noted that “the three-story concrete building had an entrance from inside the factory and iron grilles were placed on its windows.”

The FIR records that, “since the fire erupted, several employees, including men and women, have died and the injured and victims were taken to Civil, Jinnah and Abbasi Shaheed hospitals in Edhi, Chippa and other ambulances.”

SHO Gondal further stated that, “the factory owners and management had neither taken any measures to deal with an emergency nor had they provided (the building with) alternative exit to enable employees to save their lives.”

The FIR noted that the factory owners and its administration were aware of the fact that there would be a huge loss of life and property in case of any such incident. “So far 225 have been burnt to death in this fire while the rescue teams are taking out more bodies and shifting them to the hospitals. The police would initiate further action after receiving medico-legal and post-mortem reports from the hospitals and this would be made part of the case.”

According to this FIR, the initial “investigations have revealed it was due to negligence, carelessness and mala fide of the factory owners, shareholders and factory administration, the labour department, building control authority department, electric department, social security, SITE, civil defence, and other relevant departments that such a tragic incident took place, resulting in a big loss of human life.”

Consequently, the FIR said, “the factory owners, administration and above-mentioned departments are responsible for the incident, their acts fall within the ambit of a cognizable offence and therefore a case has been registered and a senior investigation officer would investigate it.”

Published in The Express Tribune, September 15^th, 2012.