Just a few hours after the factory fire in Lahore, where 25 young workers died and many more injured, another fire broke out yesterday in a garment factory in Karachi, Pakistan’s largest industrial city. This time the death toll is much higher. At least 289 workers died, including many women.

“Rescue teams are still busy and the death toll can rise,” said Roshan Ali Sheikh, a senior official of district administration. The fire broke out on Tuesday evening and took more than 14 hours for fire fighters to put it out and rescue workers trapped inside.

“The building was exposed to heavy fire for hours and there are big cracks on the walls. It can collapse at any moment,” Sheikh told Equal Times.

An inquiry into the causes of the fire was set up, focusing on the owners of the factory and to prevent them to leave the country their names have been put on an “exit control list”.

Eyewitnesses said heavy smoke was still coming out of the building this morning.

“The relatives of the trapped workers are still crying and trying to get inside the factory. It is a three-storey building. I have seen charred bodies coming out of the falling structure of factory. It was such a terrible scene,” said Nowbahar Ali, a resident in that area.

“A few workers saved their lives by jumping from the second and the third floor but most of them broke their bones.” Doctors at a local hospital said at least 65 workers suffered broken bones after jumping out of windows to escape the fire.

According to Roshan Ali Sheikh the worst-damaged part of the building is the basement. “Those who were working in the basement died first, their bodies are still being recovered”.

It is not yet clear how many people were inside the factory when the fire started, but survivors estimate that there were more than 400.

The garment factory, which was also producing plastic goods and candles had no emergency exits, leaving those in the basement or unable to get to windows no way to escape.

Labour activists blame the government for inaction and failure to enforce health and safety laws. According to Shujau Din, senior research officer at Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research, a Karachi-based NGO, since 1997 there has been a ban on labour inspection in Sindh province. This ban is a major factor for the loss of lives.

"Building owners and employers violate labour laws and health and safety provisions with impunity. The provinces of Punjab and Sindh have no functional labour inspection system," he says.

The Punjab Government restored the inspection system in March this year but its ineffectiveness is evident from yesterday’s fire in Lahore, in a shoe factory located in a residential area, with very limited provision for emergency exits.

Pakistan has not yet ratified the ILO Conventions 155 and 187 on Occupational Safety and Health. However, under Pakistani laws, employers do have a legal obligation to ensure that hazards in the workplace are eliminated, minimised, or controlled in order to avoid work accidents.

In the absence of labour inspection, employers have a free hand to pursue commercial interests at the cost of labour rights and safety. According to official statistics, the annual number of industrial accidents rose from 354 to 419 over the last ten years. In 2011 alone, the reported number of fatal work accidents went up to 101.