The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Wednesday acquitted main accused Abdul Rehman Bhola and Zubair Charya in the 2012 Baldia Town factory fire case, overturning earlier verdicts issued by lower courts and the Sindh High Court.
The case relates to the devastating arson attack on the Ali Enterprises garment factory in Karachi on September 11, 2012, which killed between 258 and 260 workers. The fire burned for nearly 15 hours, with hundreds of workers trapped inside due to locked exit doors and barred windows.
A three-member bench of the apex court, headed by Justice Shehzad Malik, nullified the earlier rulings that had awarded capital punishment to the accused.
In 2020, a Karachi court had sentenced the two men to death after finding them guilty of setting the factory on fire over alleged non-payment of extortion money. The prosecution had described the incident as Pakistan’s deadliest industrial disaster and an act of organized terrorism.
Investigators had presented testimony from more than 400 witnesses during the trial, with the case initially linked to alleged extortion demands and political affiliations at the time.
