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.
