MQM-P urges PM Shehbaz to form high-level inquiry commission to probe ‘negligence’ in Gul Plaza incident

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) on Saturday urged Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to constitute a high-level inquiry commission to hold those accountable whose negligence led to the Gul Plaza inferno.

The deadly inferno, which erupted on the night of January 17 at the mall and took nearly two days to be fully extinguished, has claimed at least 71 lives and left over 1,100 shops in ruins.

Addressing a press conference in Karachi, MQM-P leader Farooq Sattar said the citizens of Karachi had “questions of a very serious nature regarding the responsibilities of the Sindh government in this incident”, as well as those of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) and the mayor.

He called for an “independent judicial inquiry” into the Gul Plaza tragedy to ensure the truth comes to light. Sattar questioned what the “fear and obstruction” was in setting up a judicial commission.

“Incapability, mistake, apathy, shamelessness, impudence — these should be exposed,” Sattar demanded.

Sattar further demanded that the top officials of various departments be included in the commission, echoing a letter written by MQM-P Convener Khalid Maqbool to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday.

In a letter dated January 23, Maqbool Siddiqui called on the premier to notify a “high-powered independent, transparent, and impartial commission of inquiry” under Section 3 of the Pakistan Commissions of Inquiry Act 2017 (PCIA).

The MQM-P leader called on the premier to take “serious notice in exercise [of] your constitutional powers” for providing justice to the Gul Plaza victims.

The commission would aim to “inquire comprehensively into the said incident and to fix the [responsibility] and to bring to justice […] all those Sindh Govt. officials and other culprits, private persons, etc, who have been found to be involved in the happening and the subsequent deaths and loss of valuable lives of hundreds of victims, injured etc, either directly or indirectly in any manner, specially due to criminal professional negligence of Sindh Govt. officials”, the letter added.

It further urged the premier to make the inquiry commission’s report public under Section 15 of the PCIA to “ensure transparency and accountability, such that no said tragic, traumatic and inhuman incident” will take place in the future.

“It is also requested on behalf of the victims and injured affectees and their families of the said incident that federal government may immediately take into custody all the incident area into its custody and thereby direct federal departments and armed forces help to search and rescue operation the remains and scattered body parts and valuable of the victims such that the same may be securely preserved and thereby properly delivered after identification to their relevant heirs and families,” the letter added.

Siddiqui also requested that “necessary actions for immediate rehabilitation and financial assistance of the victims and injured persons’ immediate families and dependents” be taken, including the establishment of a “relief and rehabilitation fund” at the federal level to minimise the affected people’s economic hardships.

He suggested that the commission include the director generals (DGs) of Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), Intelligence Bureau (IB), National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) and Sindh National Accountability Bureau (NAB); the directors of Military Intelligence (MI) and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI); the State Bank of Pakistan joint director; as well as members from Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC), Pakistan Council of Architects and Town Planners, and National Engineering Services Pakistan (Nespak).

The MQM-P convener, who is also the federal education minister, highlighted the alleged “severity, intensity, and the scale of criminal professional negligence, mismanagement, professional misconduct by the [Government] of Sindh and its allied [government] machinery” during the incident.

He contended that “economically approx. 12,000 plus families have been directly affected, whereas thousands have been indirectly affected, prima facie due to gross criminal professional negligence, mismanagement, professional misconduct, rampant cancer of corruption, of the Sindh Govt. and its relevant officials, as per their respective domains”.

Those officials “primarily” included the local government secretary; the Karachi mayor; the deputy mayor; KMC and its Fire and Rescue Department; the Karachi municipal commissioner; the Karachi commissioner; the Sindh Building Control Authority (SCBA) DG, director (South), deputy director (South) and building inspectors; the district administration; and the Civil Defence Organisation.

The letter contended that lives could have been “saved if timely and effective, organised rescue and recovery actions had been taken on the said day”.

“However, unfortunately it reportedly took approximately 03 days to control the fire in the said incident, leading to hundreds of tragic deaths on record whereas, dozens of missing perons whose remains have been reportedly lying there at the incident area in the forms of thousands of bones and scattered body parts showing how the tragic and catastrophic deaths were happened there solely due to failure of Govt. of Sindh and its [government] machinery,” it alleged.

Claiming that the Sindh government was not “cooperating” with the victims’ families, the MQM-P leader called for the federal government’s “intervention on war-footing basis as per constitutional mandate before it’s too late”.

Siddiqui asked PM Shehbaz to take the said actions for the protection of citizens’ fundamental rights guaranteed under Articles 9 (security of person), 10A (right to fair trial), 14 (inviolability of dignity of man), 18 (freedom of trade, business or profession), 24 (protection of property rights) and 25 (equality of citizens) of the Constitution.

Farooq Sattar responds to CM Murad

He contended that Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah was “misleading the people” and diverting attention away from the Gul Plaza incident, mentioning his remarks on the floor of the Sindh Assembly.

On Friday, while detailing the history of Gul Plaza’s construction, CM Murad had pointed out that Sattar had approved the regularisation of building violations as the mayor in 2003.

In response, Sattar argued that regularisations were also done by his successor, Naimatullah Khan and that the PPP had been in power in Sindh since 2008.

Sattar also lashed out at the chief minister for reaching the site “22 hours” after the incident occurred, adding that Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab visited “after 23 hours”.

He criticised the Sindh government for terming the questions raised by them as “politicising” the matter. “Should someone not ask where the mayor was, when he did not arrive until 23 hours later? Should someone not ask why the deputy mayor did not come at all?”

Karachi Deputy Mayor Salman Abdullah Murad had paid a visit to the site by the afternoon of January 18.

“Make no mistake, chief minister Sindh. Make no mistake, mayor Karachi. The time is coming; the noose of accountability on your neck is tightening. The people of Karachi would not let you escape so easily,” he said.

“You can fool some people sometimes. You can fool some people all the time. You can fool all the people sometimes. But you can’t fool all the people all the time. Enough is enough.” Sattar quipped.