Committee formed to probe causes of fire at PID Islamabad: Fawad

ISLAMABAD: Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry on Wednesday directed to form a committee to ascertain the causes of fire that erupted at the Press Information Department in Islamabad.

Addressing media, the federal minister said the committee will be headed by Secretary Information Shafqat Jalil and will explore the incident from various angles.

He said no human or material loss occurred in the incident and the record and archives of PID are completely safe as fire could not reach those areas.

“We have formed a committee under the Information Secretary. The office is safe and we are grateful the fire was brought under control,” he said.

 

He said the PID building was old and they were already considering to shift it to some other place. “The building has infrastructure problems. Even the electricity issues were not looked after,” he said.

He said these incidents are a continuity of the mismanagement of the previous government, and the incumbent government has started efforts to make positive changes in all departments.

Fawad said the government had taken notice of the exorbitant rent being paid for the buildings, and the previous government should have focused on such issues.

He said archives of PID are being digitalized for their preservation. “All records in the buildings are safe. Records relating to the PML-N are safe everywhere,” he quipped.

Earlier, the fire that broke out at the PID building at Zero Point in Islamabad this afternoon was extinguished after frantic efforts for several hours.

The staff of the department were safely evacuated from the building as around half a dozen fire tenders took part in the fire fighting operation

A large number of people trapped inside the building were rescued with the help of a snorkel following eruption of the fire.

The fire reportedly engulfed all three floors of the building due and more fire engines were eventually called to extinguish it. However, the cause of the fire has yet not been determined yet.

Television footage showed thick plumes of smoke rising from the building. Nearby buildings were also evacuated amid fear that the fire might spread to these buildings.

Information Secretary Shafqat Jalil  had earlier said was too early to predict about the cause of fire and the damage done by it.