High court tells environmental watchdog to submit detailed report on Keamari incident

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Wednesday directed the environmental watchdog of the province and the Ministry of National Food Security & Research’s Department of Plant Protection (DPP) to submit detailed reports on the alleged gas leak in Keamari that took the lives of 17 people and left hundreds affected.

Hearing a petition seeking an inquiry into the Keamari incident, the SHC’s division bench headed by Justice Mohammad Ali Mazhar asked the representative of the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa) present in court about the cause of the alleged gas leak.

The Sepa representative said that the initial investigation suggested that soya bean dust was the cause of deaths. The Karachi Port Trust’s (KPT) counsel informed the court that there was no casualty of any KPT employee due to soya bean dust. The DPP official, however, denied any gas leak due to soya bean.

The bench asked the investigating officer if any progress had been made in the case. The officer of the Jackson police station said blood samples of the 17 victims had been despatched to the chemical examiner and their reports were awaited.

The court directed the Sepa director general and the DPP to file detailed reports on the cause of the alleged gas leak and the deaths of 17 people. Petitioner Abdul Jalil Khan Marwat had said that as many as 17 people had lost their lives and hundreds had been affected due to a mysterious poisonous gas leak in the port area.

He said the federal and provincial authorities had failed to protect the lives of the citizens and no precautionary measures had been taken by the port authorities to prevent the deadly leak. He sought an independent inquiry into the incident as well as the court to direct the government to compensate the legal heirs of the deceased and the affected citizens.

A week ago the SHC had directed the federal and provincial governments, the KPT and others to file comments on a petition seeking inquiry into the alleged gas leak.

Pasban, through its president Altaf Shakoor, had said in the petition that many people, including women, children and the elderly, died and fell ill due to negligence, carelessness and slackness, without the aid and intervention and preventive measures by the provincial and federal governments and the KPT.

The petitioner’s counsel Irfan Aziz said that the affected people of the area had become so afraid that they left their homes and moved to other areas due to the sheer negligence of the respondents who did not respond and failed to help these citizens of Pakistan.

He said that the arrangement for the off-loading of soya bean was normally carried out at the Port Qasim, but the federal minster concerned and the KPT chairman gave permission and the no-objection certificate to the MV Hercules vessel for the purpose at the Karachi Port without taking any precautionary measures, which resulted in the loss of precious lives of the residents of Keamari.

He also said that the federal minister and the KPT chairman did not remove the vessel for four days, which resulted in the mounting death toll due to the negligence of the respondents.

He added that the people of the area went to the Jackson police station but the SHO did not lodge an FIR against the federal minister or the KPT chairman for “deliberately killing innocent people”.

He said the respondents, the University of Karachi and the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre had already confirmed through their reports that the victims died due to gas and dust of the off-loaded soya bean.

The counsel requested the court to direct the Sindh police chief to order the registration of an FIR against the federal minister and the KPT chairman in the light of the medical reports.

He also requested that the government announce compensation for the bereaved families as well as provide jobs in the KPT or any other departments to the members of the families that lost their breadwinners. He further asked that MV Hercules be impounded until the disposal of the petition.

The federal and provincial law officers and the KPT’s counsel sought time to file comments on the petition. The SHC’s division bench headed by Justice Mohammad Iqbal Kalhoro instructed them to file their comments by April 8.

Death sentence upheld

The SHC dismissed an appeal of an activist of a banned organisation against his death sentence in a sectarian killing case. Syed Nadeem Abbas Zaidi had been sentenced to death by an anti-terrorism court (ATC) for murdering an activist of a religious party in the Korangi area.

According to the prosecution, the appellant along with the absconding co-accused had gunned down Qari Mohammad Amin, a local leader of the Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat, on February 23, 2013.

Zaidi had attempted to escape from the scene of the crime, but the people of the area had caught him and handed him over to the police. After perusal of all the evidences and hearing the arguments of the counsels, the court observed that the prosecution had proved its case beyond any reasonable doubt and so the appeal was dismissed and the death sentence awarded to him by the trial court upheld.

Conviction set aside

The SHC set aside the conviction of two alleged activists of a banned organisation in the case of a policeman’s martyrdom for want of sufficient evidences against them.

Rehmatullah and Mohammad Jameel had been sentenced to death by an ATC for martyring a police official and injuring two others during an attack on the Sohrab Goth police station on January 29, 2013.

According to the prosecution, the appellants along with other co-accused had attacked the Sohrab Goth police station and martyred head constable Zulfiqar and injured police constables Ghulam Nazik and Arshad.