LARKANA: Special Assistant to the Chief Minister Khair Mohammed Shaikh has reminded Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah of his Aug 25, 2017 directive to set up a fire hydrant reservoir in Larkana, and called for urgent steps to implement the long-delayed scheme.

Speaking to Dawn, Mr Shaikh said it was a matter of concern that the directive had still not been acted upon nine years later. As the then president of the Larkana Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), he said, he had written to the chief minister on behalf of the city’s business community on Jan 27, 2026.

He said the Gul Plaza fire in Karachi, in which 1,200 shops were reduced to ashes, billions of rupees were lost and more than 70 deaths were confirmed, was a grim wake-up call for the safety of commercial hubs across the province.

It was not merely an accident but a failure of access and infrastructure, he said, adding that conditions in Larkana’s old commercial centres were identical. These included Anaj Mandi, Shahi Bazaar, Jiles Bazaar, Siddique Bazaar, Khatan Bazaar (Mero Dero) and Resham Gali. They were high-density areas, he said, where thousands of people worked in narrow, multi-storey buildings with no fire exits, in a city that is both the divisional headquarters and the trading hub of the Larkana division.

Mr Shaikh said that if a fire broke out, the fire brigade’s vehicles, which were more than 30 years old (1993 and 1995 models), lacked the water pressure and mechanical reliability to begin a rescue operation. Larkana had expanded into four towns, he said, but its fire defences were a relic of the past. The main fire station, near the Municipal Corporation office, was permanently choked by illegal encroachments, heavy goods transport and hundreds of pushcarts.

A few years ago, he said, countless illegal shops and many allotted shops were demolished to clear a route for emergency vehicles. But for want of sustained enforcement, the vacated space had been reoccupied, again obstructing the movement of fire engines.

Relying on vehicles of 1993 and 1995 vintage to fight high-intensity fires was a dangerous gamble with human lives, he said. To avoid a mass-casualty event, he proposed a shift to a fixed-hydrant system that did not depend on heavy trucks entering narrow streets.

The business community had asked for the immediate conversion of a vacant tank of about 10 million gallons at the Public Health Office, near Zulfikar Bagh, into a dedicated fire hydrant reservoir. A pipe network from the tank to Khatan Bazaar, Shahi Bazaar, Jiles Bazaar and Resham Gali would provide instant water through street-level hydrants, he said, allowing firefighters to bypass the “narrow street” obstacle that had proved fatal in recent urban fires.

He also demanded four substations, one in each town, to ensure a five-minute response time. Urgent funds were needed, he said, to link the Zulfikar Bagh tank to the bazaar network, along with the immediate replacement of the 1993 and 1995 vehicles with modern rapid-response units.

Bashir Ahmed M. Pariyal, another former LCCI president, said the Karachi fire had left Larkana’s traders fearful, as the city had no proper and effective firefighting system to deal with emergencies. The proposal put forward by the sitting LCCI president should be acted on immediately, he said.

Former mayor of the Larkana Municipal Corporation Mohammed Aslam Shaikh, a leading businessman, said he had floated the idea during his tenure and conveyed it in writing to Faryal Talpur. The issue was old but genuine, he said, and demanded urgent attention, with an immediate study and approval of the fixed-hydrant system, to keep trade and traders safe.

It was learnt that on Feb 6, 2026, Dhani Bux Bhutto, section officer-VII at the Chief Minister’s Secretariat, wrote to the Local Government secretary, marking the letter “CM Directive Most Immediate”. The letter sought necessary action in accordance with law, rules and policy, and asked that the secretariat be informed at the earliest.

Mr Pariyal said this was the chief minister’s response to the LCCI’s recent communication, on which Mr Shah had written “for necessary action”.

The sitting president and two former presidents of the LCCI, together with the former mayor, called for immediate and concrete efforts to heed the business community’s demand.

Published in Dawn, November 10th, 2026