• Management committee president claims all exit points were opened as around 3,000 shopkeepers and customers left premises after fire

• Tells judicial commission he asked KE to disconnect power supply

• Alleges first fire tender ran out of water within 20 minutes; says rescue services became active after Fajr when it was already too late

• Accuses rescue services of ‘total failure and unprofessionalism’

KARACHI: Gul Plaza Management Committee President Tanveer Pasta has told a judicial commission investigating the Jan 17 devastating fire that rescue services had arrived late and made no attempt to evacuate the people trapped inside in the first few hours of the deadly inferno.

Filing his reply / statement in response to a questionnaire from the single-judge commission, headed by Justice Agha Faisal of the Sindh High Court, Mr Pasta claimed that the exits of the building were opened and functional.

He submitted that the fire was noticed at a flower shop on the ground floor at around 10:10 pm when he was in the basement. He said he rushed to the spot where shopkeepers were using in-house firefighting equipment.

However, he said that the fire was uncontrollable and spreading rapidly in electric wiring and he had made his first call to a KE’s representative on 10:17pm asking him to disconnect the power supply of the building. Subsequently, the power was cut off at 10:25pm, he said.

He also maintained that he had also asked the people present there to call the fire and rescue services and he, along with other members of the committee and shopkeepers, had started evacuating people as a result around 2,500 to 3,000 persons left the premises safely.

Negating the version of the fire department about arrival of first fire tender at 10:37pm, he stated that the first vehicle reached the scene at 10:55pm, but it ran out of water within 20 minutes and then two more fire tenders arrived at around 11:30pm.

About the presence of people inside the building at the time of incident, he said that there were 1,153 shops in the plaza with 3,456 shopkeepers and their employees while 250 to 300 customers were present in the building.

However, they were successfully evacuated through hectic efforts of the management committee by using available exits, but the people remained on the mezzanine floor could not be rescued, he maintained.

He said that the known number of people who expired on the upper floors were 72 and 51 of them belonged to Gul Plaza.

While denying the version of fire and rescue services as well as eyewitnesses about closure of several exits points, he claimed that there were a total of 16 exits, including 13 on the ground floor and three in the basement, and all were opened and functional at the time of incident.

“It may clarify that during inspection after the fire only one shutter of second floor was found in close position. However, no lock was found near the shutter,” the reply said.

Mr Pasta submitted that fire audits had been conducted from time to time, but no fire drill was recommended.

He stated that around 85 per cent of shops were rented out and the remaining were operated by the owners, but no proper record regarding ownership and tenancy was maintained at the office of the management committee.

The reply stated that the management had used to maintain a centralised record of all the shops including names, contact details of shopkeepers, but the same had been burnt in the fire.

The ownership record of all shops was with the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industries and it had reportedly provided the same to the authorities concerned, it added.

About a query of calls and messages made by the trapped persons, the statement claimed that on the basis of such calls and disclosure of locations several were recused by the management, but many of them could not be evacuated due to lack of proper rescue facilities with Rescue-1122 and fire brigade.

Mr Pasta stated that the pace of rescue services was very slow. “The rescue services had actually become active after Fajr payers but by that time it was already too late as the fire had become uncontrollable.”

“The responders had no tools /masks / equipment to enter inside the building and to rescue the survivors from the mezzanine floor. Even no foam to combat the fire was available. In fact, no attempt was made by the responders to rescue the survivors in the first few hours of the fire,” he alleged.

Mr Pasta blamed the rescue services for “total failure and unprofessionalism”. About back-up emergency lights, he said that there were seven generators installed at the rooftop and five were in working condition.

Published in Dawn, March 15th, 2026