Mehran Town factory victims’ heirs have agreed to Diyat, court told

A sessions court on Tuesday granted a couple of days to the owners of the Mehran Town luggage factory, which was gutted by fire in August and had resulted in the killing of 16 workers, to finalise their purported out-of-court settlement with the legal heirs of some of the victims.

East District & Sessions Judge Khalid Hussain Shahani, who is supervising the matter, has postponed his order on the bail applications of the interned factory owners and other suspects. Sixteen workers were killed in a fire at the BM Luggage Industry located in the Mehran Town area of Korangi on August 27. Three of the victims were brothers, over half of the victims were under the age of 30, and the youngest victim was 18 years old and the oldest was 41 years old.

Police had arrested factory owner Hassan Mehta, building owner Faisal Tariq, manager Imran Zaidi, supervisors Zafar and Rehan, and watchman Syed Zarin for their alleged negligence that led to the catastrophe.

Fourteen others, including the officials of the district administration, K-Electric, and building control, land revenue, fire, civil defence and environmental departments were implicated in the case for overlooking their duties.

On Tuesday, the defence attorney for the interned factory owners informed the court that his clients were in the process of reaching an out-of-court settlement with the legal heirs of the victims.

He presented the affidavits signed by the legal heirs of seven victims, saying that they had agreed to settle the matter with his clients against the payment of compensation, while the families of nine other victims had already submitted their compromise applications in court.

The attorney said Mehta and Tariq had agreed to pay a total of Rs4.2 million as Diyat to each of the legal heirs of the victims over a period of two years. He added that Mehta would contribute 60 per cent of the amount and Tariq would pay the remaining 40 per cent.

He said that each family would initially receive a cheque for Rs1 million, adding that they would receive Rs400,000 every six months from the remaining amount.

The counsel said the legal heirs will formally sign the agreement before the Korangi deputy commissioner on Wednesday (today), following which the same will be placed before the court for its approval. On his request, the judge allowed time to the parties to finalise their settlement and submit the report in court on Thursday (tomorrow).

The FIR of the incident was registered under sections 322 (manslaughter) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code at the Korangi Industrial Area police station on behalf of the state.