SHC takes notice of fire incident

KARACHI: The chief justice of the Sindh High Court (SHC), Justice Mushir Alam, on Wednesday took suo moto notice of the Baldia Town garment factory fire that claimed lives of as many as 289 people.

The office put up a note along with news clippings and a letter of a non-governmental organisation before the chief justice regarding the tragic incident.

The applicant, Nadeem Sheikh advocate, a representative of the NGO, submitted that the fire brigade department failed to control the blaze that engulfed the building and due to delay in the rescue operation hundreds of precious lives were lost.

He said the chief fire officer failed to adopt a strategy after realising the gravity of the fire and did not call the other civic agencies and armed forced for assistance. He prayed to court to call the labour secretary to tell the court what precautionary measures had been taken at the factories to tackle such fire incidents in the province.

Chief Justice Alam converted the letter into a constitutional petition and issued notices to the advocate general of Sindh, the deputy attorney general, the labour secretary, the IGP, the DG Rangers, the Karachi commissioner and the Sindh Building Control Authority to submit their reports on the incident in 10 days. The SHC also directed the SBCA to submit the layout plan of the building.