ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) - The Supreme Court of Pakistan has acquitted two convicts in the high-profile Baldia Town factory fire case, overturning their death sentences awarded by lower courts.
A three-member bench headed by Justice Shahzad Malik heard the appeals and accepted the petitions filed by Abdul Rehman alias Bhola and Zubair alias Chariya.
The court set aside the death sentences previously handed down by the trial court and upheld by the Sindh High Court, ordering the acquittal of both appellants.
During the proceedings, the Supreme Court also disposed of an appeal filed by Muttahida Qaumi Movement seeking the removal of certain remarks from earlier judgments.
The court observed that since the original decision had already been annulled, the disputed remarks automatically ceased to have legal effect.
The Baldia Town factory fire remains one of Pakistan’s deadliest industrial tragedies and has been the subject of prolonged legal proceedings over the years.
Background of the case Thirteen years have passed since the heartbreaking Baldia Town factory tragedy, in which 260 innocent workers were burned alive, and hundreds more were left injured or permanently disabled.
Those who perished in the horrific blaze left behind only memories. Survivors still carry the emotional scars, and the pain of the bereaved families continues to this day — unchanged, unhealed.
On this very date, thirteen years ago — September 11, 2012 — an unspeakable act of brutality was carried out, one that shook the conscience of humanity itself. That morning, the hardworking laborers at a garment factory in Baldia, Karachi, had no idea that they would not return home that evening. Instead, it would be their burnt, unrecognizable bodies. The smell of charred flesh would be so unbearable that even loved ones would struggle to identify them. Human beings — reduced to piles of ashes.
A merciless extortion mafia, showing no shred of humanity, burned alive 260 individuals who had arrived at the factory with dreams of a brighter future in their eyes. The investigation revealed a horrifying truth: the fire was not accidental. It was deliberately set after the factory owners refused to pay extortion money. Special chemicals were used — so potent that the flames quickly consumed the entire factory, turning it into a heap of ashes, with living people trapped inside.
As the investigation expanded, prominent names linked to a political party began to surface. Arrests were made, and a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) was formed. Yet, the mother who wept over the loss of her beloved child never received justice, nor did the father, robbed of the support he counted on in old age, ever get the chance to hold the killers accountable.
Every year, dozens of families of the victims of the fire used to gather outside the factory to mark the anniversary of the incident. Finally, today the top court was able to deliver justice to the oppressed.