KARACHI FIRE: FACTORY OWNERS GRANTED BAIL

MT NEWS: Three factory owners facing murder charges over the deaths of 264 people in a fire at their garment factory in the Pakistani city of Karachi have been granted bail.

Workers were trapped inside as flames consumed the factory, in one of the worst fires in Pakistan’s history.

Police registered a case against the three owners on Thursday.

But a court granted the trio’s request for “prospective bail”, ensuring they cannot be arrested before 22 September.

Abdul Aziz, Mohammad Arshad and Shahid Bhaila were directed to appear in court in Karachi before bail expired and the court also said the trio were not to leave the country.

Their legal representative said the bail application was made at a court in the town of Larkana, 450km (300 miles) north of Karachi, the capital of  Sindh province, as they feared for their lives in Karachi.

Safety debate: 

The factory owners  lawyer  Aamir Mansoob Siddiqi  said that, compensation would be made to the victims’ families and that the owners would bear the medical expenses for those injured.

The provincial industries minister has resigned.

The case has revived the debate over regulation and safety standards in Pakistan’s factories.

Government officials are also being investigated for failing to enforce fire safety regulations.

Angry relatives waiting outside the Ali Enterprises factory in the north-western Baldia town area of Karachi chanted slogans against the government on Thursday.

They said the tragedy could have been prevented if the authorities had enforced the relevant safeguards.

The blaze began on Tuesday and raged for more than 15 hours.

Witnesses described how hundreds were trapped inside, because the building had metal grilles on the windows and no fire exits.

Workers had little time or opportunity to escape from the four-storey building’s single exit – many could do so only by jumping from those windows they could get out of. Dozens suffered broken bones or worse.

Funerals took place in Karachi and in other areas of Pakistan throughout Friday. A number of the workers came from rural Sindh and Punjab provinces.

A faulty electrical switch is thought to have caused a boiler to explode. The flames set fire to chemicals stored in the building, officials believe.

Garment factories and other plants in Pakistan require their own power sources because of an increasingly erratic national grid.

The garments industry is critical to Pakistan’s frail economy. According to central bank data, it provided 7.4% of Pakistan’s GDP in 2011 and employed 38% of the manufacturing sector workforce, accounting for 55.6% of total exports.