KARACHI: A sessions court on Tuesday granted interim pre-arrest bail to the owner of a fireworks warehouse on M.A. Jinnah Road in a case pertaining to the death of at least six people in a fire last month.

Mohammed Ayub, who managed to escape from the spot in his car when the fire broke out, had filed an application before the additional district and sessions judge (South) and sought pre-arrest bail.

After the preliminary hearing, the court granted him interim bail against a surety bond of Rs50,000 and issued notices to the prosecutor and the investigating officer for appearing in person along with police papers on Sept 5 for confirmation or otherwise.

In the application, the owner submitted before the court that there was a delay of one day in lodging the FIR and no reason was given by the complainant or prosecution about such delay which makes the case allegedly doubtful and requires further inquiry.

The application contended that the sections invoked in the FIR were bailable, while Section 109 (abetment) does not apply to the content of the FIR.

It claimed that the alleged offence does not fall within the ambit of the prohibitory clause of Section 497 of the CrPC.

The Nabi Bux police station had registered an FIR after the incident under Sections 285 (negligent conduct with respect to fire or combustible matter), 286 (negligent conduct with respect to explosive substance), 109 (abetment) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code against two brothers, who are the owners of the warehouse, namely Hanif, alias Patakha, and Mohammed Ayub, on behalf of state through a police officer.

As per the FIR, the suspects had stored fireworks in “excessive” quantities in a haphazard manner without any precautionary measures and their negligence and carelessness caused loss of precious human lives. Hanif was injured in the incident while Ayub had managed to escape from the spot in his car.

Published in Dawn, September 3rd, 2025