KARACHI: The Gul Plaza Judicial Commission on Tuesday directed the Board of Revenue (BoR) to submit complete and original record of the land where the ill-fated building was constructed.

The single-judge commission headed by Justice Agha Faisal of the Sindh High Court also ordered the municipal commissioner of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation to file documents including agreements of lease deed.

The commission asked the senior member of BoR to submit complete and original record including all revenue entries, mutation registers, allotments, transfers, notifications, maps, departmental notes and ancillary record about the subject property on or before March 13.

It also said that in the light of the statement of Municipal Commissioner Sumera Hussain, it was considered imperative for her to specifically answer some questions and submit underlying agreements for lease deed of 1936 and 1991 as well as the mayor’s resolution of 1991 on or before March 13.

It warned both the officials that in the event of non-compliance, the commission reserves the right to draw appropriate inference and take necessary measures as permissible under the law.

‘Institutional failure behind lack of enforcement’

The commission also recorded the statement of noted architect and town planner Arif Hasan.

Mr Hasan informed the commission that major malls in the city lacked smoke detectors. He said as per law fire safety drills should be conducted, an alarm system and fire extinguishers be installed on every floor of a building, regular maintenance of safety gears and proper water storage facility to deal with any fire emergency.

Giving his expert opinion, he also stated that fire-resistant doors had been used for the last 50 years and the concept of fire-resistant walls may be introduced in construction of industrial units.

Mr Hasan said that all emergency exit points of a building must be accessible and opened in case of any fire.

Responding to a query of the commission about regularisation of buildings, he stated that regularisation of illegal and unauthorised structures was improper as there were deviations from the laws and regulations. “There is an institutional failure to properly enforce the fire safety laws,” he concluded.

During the hearing, Justice Faisal remarked that most of the surveys or inspections conducted by the authorities concerned were not genuine and no lessons learnt from the Baldia factory fire tragedy.

Published in Dawn, March 11th, 2026