KARACHI: Declaring that the man alleged to have set a Baldia Town factory on fire was not associated with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, the party’s coordination committee has demanded that the government should hang the person at the local roundabout in accordance with the law and Constitution.

A report submitted by a Rangers official in the Sindh High Court said that MQM was behind the fire incident that claimed the lives of at least 258 factory workers. The report was based on the information collected from an alleged MQM worker, Rizwan Qureshi.

The MQM committee said in a statement that the suspect, Rizwan Qureshi, was not its worker and the party had nothing to do with him. “The MQM has zero tolerance for terrorists, extortionists and criminal elements,” it said.

The committee said that after this clear denial the suspect should not be called an MQM worker.

‘Test case for govt’

Jamaat-i-Islami chief Sirajul Haq said on Saturday that the factory fire report was a test case for the government if it was sincere in taking action against those behind the brutal incident.

Speaking at a press conference here, he questioned the delay of more than a year in presenting the report before the court.

PTI Information Secretary Shireen Mazari said the revelations were “not surprising”. In a statement released in Islamabad on Saturday, she termed the factory fire “the deadliest incident of extortion by this political party in the urban centres of Sindh”.

Published in Dawn February 8th , 2015

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