The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday directed the federal government to file an inquiry report of Tezgam train fire incident.
A single-judge bench of the Islamabad High Court comprising Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kiyani noted that Interior Ministry failed to submit its reply despite the court order on the last hearing, directing the government to submit report over Tezgam train fire incident which resulted in death of 74 people.
At least 74 people were killed and dozens other got injured on October 31 after cooking gas cylinders exploded near Rahim Yar Khan's Liaqatpur area. The Tezgam train was on its way from Karachi to Rawalpindi when the gas cylinder carried by a passenger exploded, killing and injuring passengers. The fire destroyed three of the train's carriages, including two economy class carriages and one business class carriage.
Jurist Foundation Islamabad has submitted a petition seeking an independent inquiry under the Pakistan Commissioner Inquiry Act 2017 for the October 31 tragedy.
Riaz Hanif Rahi Advocate appeared before the IHC and contended that the evidence of the incident is being wiped out.
Railways Minister Shaikh Rashid had claimed that the fire erupted due to the cylinder blast, adding the members of Tableeghi Jamaat were carrying cylinders in the train, while the counsel of the petitioner argued the blaze was started from the business class of the train.
The petitioner sought hearing of both parties while inquiring into the incident. "Improvements always come with the realization of shortcomings and strong commitment to overcome these but the unilateral stance of railways minister before the inquiry has made it impossible to fix the responsibility of Tezgam inferno incident on the railway officials," said the petition.
The petition said that the promise to pay compensation to the legal heirs of the deceased and injured would remain a political commitment as there are many examples where promises are yet to be honored. The FIR has been registered at the railway police station and how it could help in transparent inquiry of the incident, the counsel questioned.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2019
Comments
Comments are closed.