Challan holds Gul Plaza Association responsible for January fire, exonerates govt bodies | The Express Tribune

Police on Saturday submitted the challan in the Gul Plaza fire case before the Judicial Magistrate South, naming the Gul Plaza administration as the main responsible party for the incident and its President, Tanveer Pasta, as the main accused.

Earlier this year, a fire at the Gul Plaza shopping mall in Karachi killed over 70 people and injured over 20. The Sindh government formed a single-member judicial commission, led by Sindh High Court (SHC) Justice Agha Faisal, on February 4 to probe the cause of the tragedy.

IO Deputy Superintendent of Police Amir submitted the challan today while Pasta and other accused appeared in court.

According to the challan copy available to The Express Tribune, Pasta, Joint Secretary Muhammad Ramzan, Naimatullah and Gul Plaza Association Vice President Ammar Ismail remained on bail, while the suspect named Amin had been absconding. It was also noted that 11-year-old Huzaifa’s name was omitted from the list. His challan was reportedly submitted separately in the juvenile case.

A list of 85 witnesses was also submitted alongside the challan.

The challan gave a clean chit to government institutions, stating that no negligence was found on the part of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation, Fire Brigade or Civil Defence.

It was noted that during the investigation, officials obtained various pieces of evidence, including CCTV footage, USB drives, NVR and DVR devices. The challan also noted that a forensic report found no explosive material in the items examined, nor any traces of flammable liquid.

However, the report identified residual particles left behind after the fire in certain items.

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Further, the challan raised questions over the fire safety arrangements at Gul Plaza, citing alleged negligence by the building’s administration, and included statements regarding the safety arrangements present in the shops and the building itself.

Police submitted the challan in court to pursue further legal action. The case included Sections 285, 322, 337-H(ii), 427 and 436 of the Pakistan Penal Code.

The court adjourned the hearing until September 9.

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The commission prepared a report on the conflagration, which the Sindh Home Department later released. According to the report, Gul Plaza had continued to operate as a commercial building despite being hazardous and in violation of fire-safety requirements.

It concluded that responsibility could not be pinned on a single institution or government, but lay in the collective failure of systems meant to identify risks, enforce safety rules, fight fires and rescue people in emergencies.

The commission also found that the dangers at the plaza were known well before the tragedy. Civil Defence inspections in 2024 and 2025 had identified the absence of fire-safety equipment, the presence of inflammable commercial material and deficiencies in exit routes. Yet, the identified shortcomings were not rectified and no effective legal action followed.

The building’s management was also held responsible for failing to rectify known defects. Its regularised plan provided for 1,102 shops, while 1,153 shops were actually operating in the building, with large quantities of inflammable commercial goods stored inside.

Overall, the commission rejected the idea that the tragedy could be attributed to one department, one institution or one government. It found that the legal powers, audit mechanisms, building-control authorities, firefighting services and emergency-response institutions existed across different periods.