Supreme Court Shuts the Door on Baldia Factory Fire Case, Rejecting Sindh's Review Plea

A Supreme Court bench dismissed the Sindh government's review petition in the Baldia Town factory fire case on October 7, leaving in place its June 10 acquittal of two MQM workers who had been sentenced to death over the 2012 fire.

What the bench did

The three-member bench, headed by Justice Malik Shehzad Ahmed Khan and joined by Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi and Justice Shakeel Ahmad, heard the case at the Supreme Court's Karachi Registry, Minute Mirror reported. It disposed of the Sindh government's review petition against the court's own June 10 judgment. According to ARY News, the bench also disposed of a petition concerning the expunging of lower-court remarks about MQM-Pakistan in the verdict, and rejected a request to make relatives of the dead parties to the case, reasoning that doing so could prompt about 200 more applications.

The case the review couldn't reopen

The review petition challenged the Supreme Court's June 10 acquittal of Abdul Rehman alias Bhola and Zubair alias Chariya, both convicted over the September 11, 2012 fire at the Ali Enterprises garment factory in Karachi's Baldia Town, which killed more than 260 workers. ARY News described it as the deadliest industrial blaze in Pakistan's history and reported that 16 of the dead could not be identified. An anti-terrorism court had convicted both men of murder, arson, extortion and terrorism and sentenced them to death, and the Sindh High Court upheld those sentences in September 2023. In June, the Supreme Court held that the prosecution had not proved its case beyond reasonable doubt and gave the accused the benefit of the doubt, The News reported. During those proceedings, questions were raised about certain confessional statements, and Justice Shakeel Ahmad observed that there were clear contradictions between certain statements and the available evidence.

What Sindh argued

The Sindh government filed the review petition on July 1 through Prosecutor General Shabbir Shah. According to ARY News, it argued that the judgment did not properly consider eyewitness testimony, medical evidence and other material on record, and that evidence from injured witnesses and expert testimony on the use of chemicals to start the fire had been overlooked. It also asked whether Article 188 of the Constitution, which governs the Supreme Court's power to review its own judgments, applies where a judgment is allegedly contrary to the facts and the law, and questioned whether acquittals under the Anti-Terrorism Act can remain immune from challenge by affected parties. Published reports of the October 7 hearing do not set out the bench's reasoning for the dismissal.

The wider record

The ruling sits inside a larger question this desk has tracked: how slowly, and with what result, cases move through Pakistan's courts, a backlog problem we've reported on in detail. Separately, a different court this month ruled on workplace protections, in a Federal Constitutional Court decision on harassment claims that drew criticism from a retired justice, reported here.

What to watch next

A written order, if one is issued, would show whether the bench engaged with Sindh's evidentiary and constitutional arguments. For now, the June 10 acquittals of the two men who were sentenced to death for the fire stand.

Build Better Pakistan's Rights Desk covers access to justice, labour accountability and the courts shaping who is held responsible in Pakistan.