KARACHI, April 23: The Senate Committee on Port and Shipping on Monday called for an independent probe into the fire incident that destroyed the upper six floors of the 17-storeyed PNSC building in February 2007.

The 7-member committee headed by Senator Ms Gulshan Saeed and Senators Mir Israrullah Khan, Ahmed Ali, Dr Mohammad Ali Brohi, Sardar Mahtab Ahmed, Syed Javed Ali Shah and Dr Abdul Malik discussed the possible causes of the incident and action to be taken against those responsible for it.

The committee expressed satisfaction over the progress of the repair work of the damaged floors but demanded an inquiry by independent technical experts. It also demanded an automatic fire system in the entire building to avoid recurrence of any such incident in the future.

Earlier, PNSC chairman Vice-Admiral Tauqeer Hussain Naqvi briefed the committee about the incident and said that records were gutted in the fire. He stated that according to the initial report, the fire erupted due to an electric short circuit.

PNSC chairman told the committee that electrical, air conditioning and elevator systems had been restored; external cleaning of the building was also complete.

The internal renovation is also completed by 80 per cent, he told the committee.—APP