KARACHI: A huge fire that broke out in the building of the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA)’s precision engineering complex near the old airport terminal here on early Saturday morning was put off by firefighting teams in the afternoon, it was learnt through sources.

A PIA official said that the entire machinery kept at the building had been destroyed.

PIA Chairman Azam Saigol has ordered an inquiry into the incident to find out causes of the fire, according to the airline’s spokesperson Daniyal Gilani.

Talking to this reporter, he said that preliminary investigation suggested that the fire was apparently caused by a short circuit. But the exact reason could be established after the damage assessment was done, he added.

He said that the precision engineering complex manufactured spare parts for airplanes and aviation industry.

He said that as the incident took place on Saturday, a weekly holiday, there was hardly any worker in the building and, therefore, there was no loss of life or injury. The building had been damaged but the extent of the damage caused to the precious machinery could not be immediately ascertained, he added. “It will be ascertained after losses are evaluated. The damage assessment will be possible only after the site cools down.”

Mr Gilani said that the incident had not affected flight operation.

Malir SSP Rao Anwar estimated financial losses in hundreds of millions of rupees.

Earlier, a senior official of the engineering department, Maqsood Ahmed, told reporters that there was no possibility of a sabotage activity. “There is a strong possibility that a short circuit triggered the fire,” he said, adding that the entire machinery of the complex had been destroyed and the building had been extensively damaged.

He said that the department not only repaired parts of aircraft but also manufactured them. He said that a substantial financial loss had occurred as modern machinery had been destroyed. Another employee of the department, Malik Ihasn, told reporters that the losses might be in the billions of rupees.

Sources said that parts of Airbus and Boeing aircraft were being manufactured at the complex which had always been headed by a senior official of the Pakistan Air Force. Currently Air Vice Marshal Rizwan Pasha is the director of the precision engineering complex.

Published in Dawn, June 5th, 2016