Baldia factory fire: Govt given seven days to complete DNA testing

Sindh High Court demands inspections of Karachi factories and files contempt cases against owners of Ali Enterprises.

KARACHI: Sindh High Court has directed the provincial government to complete within a week the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) matching process to identify remaining victims of the county’s worst industrial disaster.

The court has also directed the Sindh Labor Department to conduct a complete survey within one month of all the industrial establishments running in Karachi to identify how many of them have proper safety arrangements made for the workers safety.

In addition, the court issued notices of contempt to the owners of the ill-fated Ali Enterprises garments factory – Abdul Aziz Bhailla, Arshad Bhailla and Shahid Bhailla – for not providing details of their moveable and immoveable assets to the court despite orders.

On Monday, Justice Maqbool Baqir, heading a two-member bench, heard a miscellaneous applications filed by the various non-governmental organisations seeking judicial inquiry of the garment factory inferno that claimed 258 lives on September 11.

The petitioners’ counsel, Faisal Siddiqui, submitted that nearly 70 workers of the factory were still missing despite the lapse of nearly two months. This, he submitted, has added to the miseries of their families. As many as 40 unidentified bodies are still lying at the Edhi mortuary, while another 30 are still missing.

Siddiqui said the high court had already ordered the provincial government to expedite the DNA matching process and submit its report, along with details of compensation given to those dead or injured.

However, no such report has been filed yet, the counsel claimed. Siddiqui moved the applications for surveying industrial establishments and the contempt proceedings against the factory owners.

After hearing arguments, the judges ordered the provincial government to complete the DNA matching process within one week and submit its report with details of compensation given to the families of the victims and survivors.