The Karachi police on Monday constituted a special team to make “all-out efforts” to arrest suspects in the Gul Plaza fire and to conduct an impartial probe into the incident.
An order issued by the office of South Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Syed Asad Raza stated that the five-member team was constituted for the “arrest of involved accused person(s) and impartial investigation” into the case.
“The investigation team shall make all-out and diligent efforts to arrest the accused person(s) by utilising all available resources,” read the notification.
In a first information report (FIR) of the incident, dated January 23, the Karachi police said the fire was an “outcome of negligence and carelessness”.
The case was registered against unknown persons as the police have not nominated anyone in the case.
The special team will comprise the Garden Sub-divisional police officer (SDPO), the Kharadar investigation deputy superintendent of police (DSP), the head of the Garden Central Investigation Cell, the station house officer of Nabi Bux police station – where the FIR was registered – and an investigation officer of the case.
The team was allowed to co-opt any officer/official from the South Zone police if it wanted “help to solve the case”.
“Daily progress report shall be submitted to this office without fail,” DIG Raza ordered.
The deadly inferno, which erupted on the night of January 17 at the mall and took nearly two days to be fully extinguished, has claimed at least 73 lives and left over 1,100 shops in ruins. Only 23 of the deceased have been identified so far.
After nine days of scouring through the rubble to locate remains of the dead and missing, the search operation concluded on Sunday, DIG Raza told the media.
Subsequently, he added, Gul Plaza has been sealed.
Temporary restrictions on the M.A. Jinnah Road have been removed, and workers of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) were seen installing green construction mesh on the plaza.
CM Murad asserted that whoever will be found responsible by the inquiry will be punished, noting that “more than 80 lives have been lost”.
“I will not take the name of anyone right now. Once the inquiry is over, it will come forward after that.”
“We have mistakes; I admit it,” the chief minister acknowledged, noting that even audits conducted in Islamabad were found unsatisfactory.
Asked about the possibility of the incident being a case of arson, the chief minister referred to the inquiry committee formed and stressed that it would “consider all aspects”.
The Sindh CM pointed out that anyone who had any “facts” to share could approach the committee. “If we are responsible, we will accept punishment.”
However, he cautioned that all those “saying such things will also be held accountable”.
Asked about the reported inadequate water supply during the rescue operation, the chief minister acknowledged, “We have fire brigades but they are not enough.”
Pinning the blame on “legacy issues” and “old laws”, Murad noted that multiple departments – the KMC, Rescue 1122, the Sindh Integrated Emergency & Health Services, and the Home Department (which conducts fire audits) – were all involved in the same matter.
The Sindh CM announced that all such departments will be merged and work was underway for the required legislation.
Separately, CM Murad warned there would be “no compromise” on the implementation of fire safety measures for the buildings under his audit plan.
As part of its province-wide fire safety audit, the Sindh government has identified a total of 2,368 buildings across the province for the initial phase.
According to data presented in Sunday’s meeting, Sukkur tops the list with 898 buildings identified for the fire safety audit, Karachi has 562, Hyderabad has 540, Shaheed Benazirabad has 171, Larkana has 143, and Mirpurkhas has 54 buildings identified.
CM Murad declared, “An audit will be conducted of every [major] building, and we will start from the building which has more footfall.”
He said the implementation of this process has started, with 20 different “targets” given to the building owners.
The Sindh CM detailed that the targets included some “very necessary stuff that could be completed within a week”, such as installing alarms and portable fire extinguishers, clearing spaces so people know the exit, properly marking the exits, and having back-up lights in case of power failure.
The specifics of such requirements will be outlined on the day of the audit, the chief minister said.