SHC seeks report to determine if factory was built under approved plan

Chiefs of SBCA and SITE told to inspect the building, submit report by April 29.

KARACHI: Six months after the fire at Ali Enterprises which killed 289 workers, the judges have ordered inspection of the wrecked building to determine whether building laws were followed or not.

The Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) and Sindh Industrial Trading Estate (SITE) have been ordered by the Sindh High Court to jointly inspect the gutted garment factory in Baldia Town and submit their report.

“The report should reveal the deviation from the relevant laws, particularly the rules and the regulations,” the bench ordered, further directing that architects and engineers should be available to assist in this task.

The country’s worst industrial fire on September 11, 2012 sparked a wave of countrywide protests against the poor enforcement of laws concerning labour welfare and safety arrangements in the industries.

Factory owners - Abdul Aziz Bhaila, his sons Shahid Bhaila and Arshad Bhaila - along with their employees and certain government officials have been booked under murder, mischief by fire and other related charges by the Baldia Town police.



Various organisations working for labour rights had gone to the Sindh High Court, claiming that multiple notices were issued to the factory owners over violating building and factory laws but no action was taken. Later, the labour department told the court that the gutted factory was not registered with the directorate of labour.

Faisal Siddiqui and Waseem Iqbal, the lawyers representing groups, said that the SBCA has jurisdiction in SITE but it malafidely absolved itself from all the responsibilities, merely saying that the area was not under its jurisdiction. SBCA is directly responsible for deliberate inaction against the factory owners, who continuously violated the building laws, they claimed.

The lawyers asked the court to order the civic agencies concerned to initiate legal proceedings against the factory owners for violating building, factory, labour and environment laws. The government may acquire the factory’s land and construct rehabilitation and community centre for the families of the fire incident victims, they also requested.

Justice Maqbool Baqar, who headed the bench, directed the chiefs of the SBCA and SITE to inspect the burnt factory building to determine whether it was constructed under the approved building plan or not. They have been directed to submit report by April 29.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 16^th, 2013.