Baldia factory fire: Victims’ families demand new judicial commission

KARACHI:

Families of the 259 people who died in the Baldia factory fire of 2012 have demanded that a new judicial commission be set up with sitting judges from the Supreme Court of Pakistan to probe the incident and submit a report within 90 days.

They also demanded that the report compiled by the Justice (retd) Zahid Qurban Alvi should be made public. Upset over the blame game that started after a report of the joint investigation team was placed before the Sindh High Court, the families claimed that their loved ones’ deaths were being ‘politicised’.

“Thirty months later, these politicians do not talk about the affectees demands in the parliament,” said Nasir Mansoor, the deputy general-secretary of the National Trade Union Federation Pakistan at a press conference with the victims’ families at Karachi Press Club on Thursday. “Now, they want to be wellwishers. Their behaviour is condemnable.”

Published in The Express Tribune, February 13^th, 2015.