A metropolitan institution in charge of monitoring and regulating the safety guidelines essential to passing of plans and construction of buildings has one of the worst incidents, incurring a huge loss of lives. This is so ironically tragic it defies common sense. The office of the Lahore Development Authority (LDA), the LDA Plaza, a nine-storey building off The Mall, was scorched on Thursday, in which until the last report, 25 people died. People trapped in a burning building, without any fire exits in sight and even fire alarms, and shoddy fire extinguishers, is a most disturbing case of professional and ethical negligence, and more so, because the LDA is the authority that formulates, issues and ensures all guidelines connected to the safe, quality construction of buildings, in accordance with the standards of building security and protection. The loss of 25 people, some of them charred to death, and 15 still missing at the LDA Plaza, is another very serious indication of how much inefficiency and negligence is in play at the establishment that is supposed to be the authority to ensure no untoward incident happens at any building in case of a fire. This building is on the pattern of the majority of buildings in Lahore and other major and smaller cities of Pakistan, which are constructed cutting costs, including installation of fire safety measures, without any concern for people living or working in them in case of an accident. It is time a concrete policy at the governmental level is implemented, which would make it imperative for all future buildings to be equipped on modern safety guidelines, and even add certain essential items in the older buildings (fire alarms, fire extinguishers, emergency doors, fire escapes, etc). The other important factor not to be ignored here is the need to conduct a comprehensive investigation into the causes of the deadly fire, for which Chief Minister Najam Sethi has constituted a seven-member commission. If it was a case of inefficiency, then all responsible should be held accountable and directives for a code for building safety must be reformulated. If it was arson, as per some widely circulated insinuations, the investigation takes an even more significant tone, making all in charge culpable and liable to be booked for criminal intent. If the fire was the doing of some miscreants who were trying to get rid of some important documents stored in the LDA office, the deaths of 25 people become a case of second degree murder. Are these deaths of ordinary Pakistanis going to remain unaccounted for like many before in incidents where fire charred the bodies, or the debris of collapsed buildings buried the living alive? *