Gul Plaza Judicial Probe: Relatives of victims' question rescue effort

KARACHI: The relatives of the Gul Plaza fire deceased on Monday questioned the rescue effort during the deadly inferno that thoroughly destroyed the shopping mall building with dozens of deaths.

A meeting of the judicial commission headed by Justice Agha Faisal held at the office of the Deputy Commissioner South. Twenty-three relatives of 33 deceased recorded their statements to the judicial probe.

The family members of deceased said that the lives can be saved if the heavy machinery of Green Line project was used. “Fire Brigade and rescue teams were present at the site but there was water shortage. “The fire tanker reached after two hours the building was filled with smoke”.

“The lights of mobile phones and trapped persons were being seen from windows. The administration was requested to break windows but they didn’t heed,” relatives of deceased said.

Justice Agha Faisal directed the relatives to fill their questionnaires and submit it to the commission’s secretariat or at the office of the Deputy Commissioner South.

On the night of Saturday, January 17, a massive fire broke out at Gul Plaza on M.A. Jinnah Road, engulfing the commercial building and trapping dozens inside. The blaze raged for over 32 hours before being brought under control, exposing weaknesses in the city’s emergency response system.

The Sindh government has notified constitution of an inquiry commission for probe into the deadly fire.

Home Minister Ziaul Hassan Lanjar earlier said that the inquiry commission will probe into the construction approval of Gul Plaza and legal status of the lease.

“The commission will also thoroughly inspect about the building plan violations and hindrances in emergency exits in the building,” minister said.

Home minister also called for determining discrepancies in firefighting arrangements and fire safety audit.