Karachi: The Karachi police on Saturday submitted the charge sheet after a judicial commission investigation into the tragic fire at Gul Plaza shopping mall on January 17, which killed more than 70 people. The building housed almost 1200 businesses and was a popular destination for Karachi shoppers.
According to the charge sheet, police said they found no cause for negligence on behalf of the Karachi Municipal Corporation (KMC) or the fire brigade and instead noted that the primary responsibility lay with the mall administration, who they say failed to provide the most basic fire safety measures. The police reviewed CCTV footage and interviewed 87 witnesses during the course of their investigation.
According to the report of the judicial commission issued by the Sindh Home Department, the failure was caused by the absence of all three essential components of fire safety, namely prevention, detection and firefighting,
"In such circumstances, the occurrence of fire cannot be regarded as an unforeseeable event, but rather as a foreseeable consequence of operating the building in a hazardous condition," read the report.
