Pakistan sentences two men to death for 2012 Karachi factory fire that killed over 260
- The two men, members of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) party, were found guilty of starting the blaze after the owner refused to pay a bribe
- Pakistan’s moratorium against the death penalty was controversially lifted after a bloody Taliban attack on a school in Peshawar in 2014
A Karachi court found Mohammad Zubair and Abdul Rehman guilty of arson, ruling the pair intentionally set the Ali Enterprises factory ablaze after the owner refused to pay a bribe.
In what was considered a largely symbolic gesture, the court sentenced them to 264 separate death sentences, along with life imprisonment.
“I am satisfied with the court’s verdict as it has awarded them very appropriate sentences,” said public prosecutor Sajid Mehboob Sheikh.
Both Zubair and Rehman were members of the once-powerful Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) party that ruled Karachi for decades.
The party was frequently accused of assassinating opponents, exhorting businesses and orchestrating strikes to cement its stranglehold over the city until an operation by security forces effectively crushed them in 2013.
