KARACHI: Muttahida Qaumi Movement lawmaker Rauf Siddiqui withdrew on Wednesday his bail application in the Baldia factory fire case as police did not charge-sheet him for want of sufficient evidence.

Over 250 workers died in the multistorey garment factory fire in Baldia Town in September 2012.

When the case came up for hearing before ATC-VII at the Karachi Central Prison on Wednesday, the MQM leader, through his lawyer Shaukat Hayat, moved an application seeking withdrawal of his bail application.

When the court asked Special Public Prosecutor Sajid Mehboob Shaikh about his opinion, he said it was the prerogative of an accused to withdraw his bail nor not.

He added that the police wrote the applicant’s name in column two of the last charge sheet with blue ink and the court could summon him if sufficient evidence surfaced against him in future.

Later, the applicant withdrew the bail application and the court adjourned the hearing of the case till July 29.

Meanwhile, a former sector in-charge of the MQM, Abdul Rehman alias Bhola, moved a bail application in court. The judge issued a notice to the prosecution for the next date.

The prosecution said that suspect Rehman alias Bhola and Zubair alias Charya along with their accomplices allegedly set the factory on fire on the instruction of then chief of the MQM’s Karachi organising committee Hammad Siddiqui as the factory owners had refused to pay protection money.

Published in Dawn, July 6th, 2017