Gul Plaza: Judicial commission blames safety failures for deadly fire

KARACHI: The judicial commission investigating the Gul Plaza fire has found that the shopping centre remained in commercial use despite serious safety hazards and violations of fire safety laws, while multiple government agencies failed to act on known risks.

The commission’s report identifies responsibilities across the plaza’s management, civil defence, building control authorities, district administration, firefighting services and emergency responders.

According to the report, Gul Plaza management failed to address defects identified during inspections in 2024 and 2025. Civil Defence reports had highlighted the absence of adequate fire-safety equipment, flammable materials and problems with emergency exits.

The building continued to operate commercially despite its dangerous condition, the commission found.

The report also criticised the delay in alerting the fire brigade after the blaze began. A subsequent power outage further reduced the chances of people escaping from upper floors by leaving parts of the building in darkness.

Although Gul Plaza had a speaker system, the management did not use it during the emergency, according to the findings.

The commission noted that the approved plan allowed 1,102 shops, while the building actually contained 1,153. Many of the shops stored large quantities of flammable goods, increasing the risks during the fire.

The report also questioned the response of the fire brigade. It found that, contrary to its own response standards, effective firefighting began around 35 to 40 minutes after the fire started.

Water shortages and delays in refilling supplies hampered firefighting and rescue efforts. The commission said the failure to deploy critical equipment promptly reduced the chances of rescuing people who remained accessible inside the building.

It also rejected the idea that claims of water reserves at fire stations were sufficient, saying the lack of an effective water supply during the initial response represented a major management failure.

Agencies failed to act on warnings

The commission found that Civil Defence had identified serious deficiencies during inspections in 2024 and 2025, but authorities took no legal action to address them.

Even after courts became involved in 2025, the deficiencies were not followed by effective enforcement, the report said.

The commission described the failure of Civil Defence as more than a lack of awareness, saying authorities knew about the risks but failed to act.

The district administration also failed to conduct a joint audit of Gul Plaza despite a three-tier fire audit system established on the instructions of the Sindh High Court.

The report held the Deputy Commissioner, South Office, institutionally responsible for failing to activate the available monitoring and audit mechanism.

The Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) also came under criticism. The commission said the authority could not avoid responsibility by limiting inspections to complaints because the Sindh Building Control Ordinance gave it powers to take corrective measures in dangerous buildings.

The SBCA was also held responsible for incomplete records relating to Gul Plaza and inadequate monitoring of fire safety.

Rescue opportunities were missed

The commission found that Rescue 1122 personnel reached the site after the fire broke out, but significant opportunities for rescue still existed.

According to the report, rescuers could have carried out operations between 11:15am and 11:20am, when some trapped people remained visible.

Access through the building’s ramp also remained possible until around 11:30am. However, Rescue 1122 failed to turn this limited window into a large-scale rescue operation, the commission concluded.

The report also found failures in electrical safety oversight. Under the law, electrical installations and equipment should undergo regular inspections, but the electrical inspector told the commission that no regular inspection of Gul Plaza had been conducted.

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System-wide failure

The commission concluded that responsibility for the tragedy did not rest with one institution or one government.

It said legal authorities, building-control mechanisms, audit systems, firefighting services and emergency-response institutions existed at different levels, but the overall safety system failed to operate effectively.

The report said the victims died not only because of the fire but also because of delays, darkness, blocked roads and obstructed windows.

Ultimately, the commission attributed the loss of life to a dysfunctional safety system, ineffective inspections and audits, fragmented institutional responsibility and missed opportunities for timely rescue.