KARACHI: An antiterrorism court on Tuesday allowed an application of the prosecution for recording testimonies of the factory’s owners through a video link due to security concerns in the Baldia factory fire case.

Special public prosecutor Sajid Mehmood Shaikh had moved an application and pleaded to record the evidence of Arshad Bhaila and his brother Shahid Bhaila, who owned the Ali Enterprises garments factory along with their father Aziz Bhaila, through videoconferencing from the Pakistani mission’s office in the UAE since they could not return due to threats.

After hearing both sides, the ATC-VII judge, who is conducting the trial in the judicial complex inside the central prison, allowed the application.

Suspect in anchor’s murder case refuses to record statement

The court directed the prosecutor to coordinate with all stakeholders concerned in order to record the statements of the factory owners through a video link.

The court also directed the former investigating officer of the case Sajid Sadozai to file the original report of a joint investigation team, which investigated the case, till July 29.

Earlier, the prosecutor argued that the trial court had declared the factory owners prosecution witnesses, adding that they had fled abroad and were unable to travel to Pakistan for recording their statements in the case due to threats and danger to their lives.

He further maintained that recording the statements of Bhaila brothers from the Pakistani consulate general in Dubai through a video link was necessary to meet the ends of justice and sought directives for the authorities concerned for making arrangements of recording their testimonies.

The counsel for the two accused submitted that they had no objection if the application was approved while another defence counsel opposed the plea and pleaded for its dismissal.

Mr Shaikh said that the prosecution had so far examined 396 witnesses and will rest its side after examining around five other prosecution witnesses including Bhaila brothers.

Over 250 workers were burnt alive when a multistorey garment factory building was set on fire in Baldia Town in September 2012. Muttahida Qaumi Movement MPA Rauf Siddiqui, then MQM sector in-charge Abdul Rehman alias Bhola, Zubair alias Charya, Dr Abdul Sattar Khan, Hyderabad-based businessman Umar Hasan Qadri, Iqbal Adeeb Khanum and the industrial unit’s four gatekeepers are facing the trial. The then chief of the MQM organising committee, Hammad Siddiqui, and others have been declared proclaimed offenders.

Initially, the owners of the factory, a general manager and four gatekeepers were charge-sheeted for their alleged negligence. However, the case took a turn in February 2015 when Rangers submitted a JIT report in the Sindh High Court, which revealed that the factory was set on fire after its owners failed to pay ‘protection money’. Subsequently, the reinvestigation of the case was ordered in March 2015 through a JIT and after a lengthy reinvestigation, the supplementary investigation report was filed in August 2016.

Suspect sent to jail in anchorperson’s murder case

A judicial magistrate on Tuesday remanded suspect Atif Zaman in jail custody in a case pertaining to the murder of television anchorperson Mureed Abbas and another person allegedly over a financial dispute.

Earlier, the IO had moved an application before a magistrate asking to record the confessional statement of the suspect under Section 164 (power to record statements and confessions) of the Criminal Procedure Code.

However, the suspect, who has been under treatment at a private hospital since his arrest, was brought to the City Courts on Tuesday in an ambulance on a court order, but he refused to record his confessional statement.

The IO also furnished a medical report about the fitness of the suspect. The magistrate sent the suspect to prison on judicial remand and directed the jail superintendent and police surgeon to provide him required medical facilities.

Zaman has been booked for allegedly killing his business partners Abbas and Khizar Hayat in Khayaban-i-Bukhari, Defence Housing Authority, on July 9.

The police said the suspect was arrested in a wounded condition after the incident as he made a bungled attempt to commit suicide to avoid his arrest.

Conviction in murder case

A model court on Tuesday sentenced a man to life imprisonment in the murder case of a political worker.

Mohammad Umar, said to be a worker of the Pakistan Sunni Tehreek, was found guilty of killing Gul Sher, an activist of MQM, in Lyari in 2012 over an alleged dispute about collection of protection money.

Published in Dawn, July 24th, 2019