Declaring the capital punishment awarded to Abdur Rehman Bhola and Zubair Chirya by the Sindh High Court (SHC) and the trial court in the Baldia Town factory fire case null and void, the Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday acquitted both the accused, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.
A three-member bench, headed by Justice Shahzad Malik, accepted the appeals filed by the accused.
The apex court disposed of an appeal filed by the MQM-P, seeking remarks to be expunged, saying it had become ineffective in light of the decision just given.
The Sindh High Court had on September 12, 2023 upheld the death penalty handed down to two workers of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement and set aside life term of four employees in the Baldia factory fire case.
The verdict was announced by the two-judge anti-terrorism appellate bench, headed by Justice Mohammad Karim Khan Agha, on the 11th anniversary of the country’s deadliest industrial disaster.
The bench also dismissed an appeal filed by the state challenging the acquittal of then provincial minister for commerce and industries Rauf Siddiqui and three others by an anti-terrorism court (ATC) in the same case.
The Baldia factory fire case is the deadliest in Pakistan’s history, which occurred at the Ali Enterprises garment factory in Baldia Town, Karachi, on September 11, 2012. 264 people had lost their lives in the incident.
Originally thought to be a tragic safety accident, investigations later revealed the blaze was an act of organized arson and terrorism linked to political extortion.
An anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Karachi had on September 22, 2020 sentenced two MQM workers, Zubair aka Charya and Abdul Rehman aka Bhola, to death in the high-profile Baldia factory arson case — eight years after the blaze claimed hundreds of lives.
Reporter: Amanat Gishkori