The Sindh government on Tuesday formally notified a single-member commission formed to further investigate the cause, among other things, of the deadly Gul Plaza inferno.
While the government had issued a notification appointing Justice Agha Faisal — who was nominated by the Sindh High Court (SHC) — as the judge for the task on February 4, the notification was officially published in the provincial Gazette today.
“The Commission of Inquiry will complete the inquiry within eight (08) weeks,” read the notification seen by Dawn.
The office of Karachi Commissioner Syed Hassan Naqvi would provide secretariat support to the commission, it added.
It should be mentioned that the Sindh government had decided to seek a judicial inquiry into the fire, which claimed at least 73 lives, took nearly two days to be fully extinguished and left over 1,100 shops in ruins.
The move came after a cabinet subcommittee of the PPP-led Sindh government reviewed a report submitted by a two-member team. They discussed the circumstances surrounding the fire incident at Gul Plaza and agreed that an independent judicial probe was necessary.
Though the decision followed Sindh’s major opposition parties’ unanimous rejection of the preliminary findings, Sindh Senior Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon refuted that it was due to “pressure” from the political opponents.
After conducting its own probe, the Sindh government had said multiple officials were suspended and some would face departmental action.
Terms of reference
As outlined in the Home Department’s notification earlier, the commission’s terms of reference (TORs) include ascertaining “the causes and circumstances leading to the fire incident at Gul Plaza Shopping Centre”.
