LAHORE, July 5: The Lahore High Court removed on Friday Rescue 1122 Director-General Dr Rizwan Naseer from the chairmanship of the Fire Safety Commission for showing poor performance in a recent fire incident at the LDA plaza. Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah passed the order in a petition filed for bringing the responsible(s) of fire at the LDA plaza to justice and making sufficient arrangements to avoid such incidents in future.

Petitioner Noshab A Khan advocate stated that the court had formed the Fire Safety Commission under the chairmanship of Dr Naseer and also gave it certain tasks with regard to enforcement of building laws, including emergency exits in the high-rise buildings in particular.

He said that rescuers of the Punjab Emergency Service failed to rescue the people trapped in the LDA plaza when fire erupted there. He said the Rescue 1122 did not equip with basic gadgets used in such situations.

He said the people trapped on upper floors had to jump from the building to save their lives due to unavailability of a long ladder.

The lawyer stated had the emergency service (Rescue 1122) equipped with modern gadgets, lives of more people could have been saved.

Doubting the incident, he also referred to a letter written by District Coordination Officer Naseem Sadiq to the chief minister and alleged that the fire was set to destroy some particular record.

Advocate Khan urged the court to order a judicial inquiry into the incident so that the responsibility of the authorities concerned could be fixed.

A provincial law officer told court that the inquiry was being held on the direction of the chief minister. He said an initial report had been submitted to the chief minister.

The judge summoned the Advocate General Punjab for July 11 along with the report of the government’s inquiry and also asked the petitioner to suggest names for the chairman of the Fire Safety Commission.