KARACHI: The Gul Plaza Judicial Commission was on Wednesday informed that there were no emergency back-up lights in the shopping mall where electricity was disconnected after the fire broke out and engulfed the building on Jan 17.

The single-member commission headed by Justice Agha Faisal of the Sindh High Court recorded the testimonies of rescue and fire brigade officials and a member of management of the building.

Sindh Rescue 1122 Director General retired Brigadier Wajid Sibghatullah Mahar appeared before the commission and deposed that all the equipment was available, but no safety gears/uniform could be affective in a third-degree fire producing temperatures of up to 800 degrees Celsius.

He also said that the fire broke out on the ground floor and spread to upper floors through air-conditioning ducts and many people died from suffocation caused by the intense heat and smoke.

Chief fire officer testifies shopping mall’s electricity was switched off by the time fire tenders arrived there; Rescue 1122 chief says power supply must be cut in fire cases as per SOP

Responding to a question of the commission about switching off the power of the building shortly after the fire broke out, he maintained that as per the standard operating procedure, the electricity has to be switched off in such cases.

However, he admitted that emergency lights were not availability in the building.

The chief of emergency & rescue service also informed the commission that the government was planning a joint and comprehensive mechanism to tackle such incidents of fire as well as to merge all rescue services.

Chief Fire Officer Humayun Khan stated that his department had responded swiftly after receiving information, but the fire had spread when the fire tenders had arrived there and the traffic gridlock had caused difficulties for more fire vehicles to arrive at the site.

He also maintained that initially, the fire brigade was not informed about the presence of people inside the building, the windows and grills were removed from first and second floors and ladders were fixed with fire tenders to rescue the trapped people.

Replying to a query about fire tenders and shortage of water and fuel, the chief fire officer asserted that all such vehicles were fully functional and the water was provided through bowsers and a fire tender usually took eight to 10 minutes to dispose of its stock.

The commission also doubted timely water supply to fire tenders through browsers during such incident due to traffic congestion and asked whether the fire hydrants, established during the British-era in the city, were still available. However, he replied in the negative.

Mr Khan further said that exit/entry points leading to upper floors of the building were blocked and the fire had intensified due to stock of cloths in the building as well as roof sealing of the shops.

He stated that generally, fire crew decided about the supply of electricity in such cases, but the light of Gul Plaza was switched off when the fire tenders arrived at the site.

The president of Gul Plaza Traders Association, Tanveer Pasha, also turned up before the commission deposed that the fire erupted at 10.10pm, K-Electric was approached to shut down the area and the same was done in seven to eight minutes.

He claimed that all the gates of the building were opened at the time of the incident and hundreds of people were recused through these entry/exit points while fire tenders had faced water shortage and fire fighters had not attempted to go inside on the first day.

There were 1,200 shops in the building and around 3,000 people were present inside at the time, he said and conceded that emergency lights were not available in the building and he had made first call to the power utility to disconnect electricity.

The commission will continue to record the testimonies of various other officials of the KMC, Sindh Building Control Authority, Karachi Water and Sewerage Corporation and others on Thursday (today).

Published in Dawn, February 19th, 2026