KARACHI- MQM has announced three days of mourning on the tragic deaths of more than 200 workers due to a raging fire in a factory in Baldia Town in Karachi.  The decision was taken in a joint meeting of the Co-ordination Committee in London and Pakistan. The meeting termed the horrific incident a national tragedy and decided to suspend all organisational activities of the MQM in order to pay full concentration on relief activities.
The meeting also decided that gatherings would be held for offering fateha and recitation of the Holy Quran for the people who had perished due to fires in Baldia Town in Karachi and in Lahore. Black arm bands would be worn by the workers and black flags would be waved at all party offices.  The Co-ordination Committee also decided that the Khidmat-i-Khalq Foundation of the MQM would make arrangement for transporting the mortal remains of the workers to their ancestral places in the Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, and Interior Sindh besides Karachi.  The Co-ordination Committee has directed the office-bearers and workers of the MQM to take part in the funerals of the unfortunate factory workers and share the grief and sorrow of the mourning families.
The Co-ordination Committee has appealed to President Asif Zardari, Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, Governor Dr Ishrat-ul-Ebad, and Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah to announce compensation for the grief-stricken families who lost their loved-ones in the blazing inferno.  The Co-ordination Committee has demanded high-level inquiry of the incident and said that stern actions should be taken against the people responsible for the horrific deaths of the workers including the owners of the factory. The Co-ordination Committee also expressed deep grief and sorrow over the death in Lahore due to the fire in a factory. It demanded of Punjab Governor Latif Khosa and CM Shahbaz Sharif to hold an inquiry into the incident.