• Grants Abdul Rehman Bhola, Zubair Chariya benefit of doubt
• Rejects plea to make victims’ relatives parties
• Defence says accused were not named in original FIR
• Argues JIT report was not legally admissible evidence

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Wednesday overturned the convictions of two Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) workers — Abdul Rehman ‘Bhola’ and Zubair ‘Chariya’ — for their alleged involvement in the deadly 2012 Baldia factory fire in Karachi.

Over 260 workers, including 16 who could not be identified, were burnt alive when the multi-storey Ali Enterprises garment factory was set on fire in Baldia Town on Sept 11, 2012, in what became the deadliest industrial blaze in Pakistan’s history.

On Wednesday, a three-judge SC bench, headed by Justice Malik Shahzad Ahmed and comprising Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi and Justice Shakeel Ahmad, set aside the death sentences awarded to the two accused by an anti-terrorism court (ATC) on charges of murder, extortion, arson and terrorism, granting them the benefit of the doubt.

Abdul Rehman alias Bhola, a former sector in-charge in MQM’s organisational structure, and Zubair alias Chariya were sentenced to death in September 2020 for allegedly setting the factory on fire.

In 2023, the Sindh High Court (SHC) had upheld the death penalty awarded to the two workers and set aside the life terms of four factory employees. Later, both convicts challenged the verdict in the Supreme Court.

The SHC had 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 the ATC in the same case.

While accepting the appeals of the two accused, the SC said a detailed judgement would be issued later. It also rejected a request to implead relatives of the deceased as parties in the case, observing that if the court made them parties in the matter, 200 more applications could come tomorrow.

Justice Shahzad also ruled that the application to expunge remarks made by the lower courts regarding the MQM had become ineffective since their decisions had been declared null and void.

During the hearing, Justice Shahzad said there was a confessional statement from Zubair Chariya but not from co-accused Abdul Rehman Bhola.

“Had there been a demand of extortion by MQM, why was the acquittal of other co-accused (in the case) not challenged?” he asked.

Appearing on behalf of the petitioners, senior counsel Farogh Naseem argued that the petitioners were innocent and falsely implicated by the police, since the two were never named in the FIR and were implicated on the basis of a 2015 joint investigation team (JIT) constituted by the Sindh government — a report which, he argued, was neither legally admissible as evidence nor could be relied upon for awarding a death sentence or even life imprisonment.

The counsel said it was settled law that the benefit of the doubt had to be extended to the accused, particularly when the SHC had already extended the benefit of the doubt to other co-accused.

He further argued that the accused were implicated more than two and a half years after the incident, which, he said, proved that the prosecution witnesses were concocted.

The counsel also recalled that three gates of the Ali Enterprises garment factory were locked on the alleged orders of the factory owner, Abdul Aziz Bhaila, sometime before the incident.

He further argued that the owner’s sons, Arshad Bhaila and Shahid Bhaila, as well as the administration of the three-storey factory building, had not made adequate arrangements for emergency exits for the factory workers.

The counsel said iron grills were fixed on the windows, due to which workers failed to escape. The appeals claimed there was no evidence against the petitioners regarding the demand for extortion, which, according to the prosecution, was made in July 2012, while the incident took place in September that year.

Published in Dawn, June 11th, 2026