Farooq Sattar blames Sindh govt’s 'inaction, apathy, and corruption' for Gul Plaza fire

MQM-P leader, Dr Farooq Sattar blamed the Sindh government’s “inaction, apathy, and corruption” over decades, saying it contributed to the catastrophic Gul Plaza fire.

Sattar, while speaking in the national assembly, claimed that people of Karachi have complete right to question both Sindh and federal government on the incident and on its aftermath, demanding accountability on delayed emergency response.

He accused Sindh CM Murad Ali Shah and Murtaza Wahab, the mayor of Karachi, of arriving more than 20 hours after the fire began. Meanwhile, he also honored firefighter Furqan Ali, who died during rescue operation.

Dr Farooq also criticized Karachi’s governance, arguing that Karachi is “undercounted, underrepresented, and underfunded.” He said that it lacks adequate firefighting capacity. He emphasized on a strengthened local government framework for the metropolitan city. 

Meanwhile, Khawaja Asif, the defense minister, supported the call to empower local government systems, saying the current provincial model is inadequate for managing a city like Karachi. 

Khwaja Asif blamed the 18th Amendment for centralizing authority at the provincial level and urged grassroots representation.

PPP’s Shehla Raza dismissed some of this criticism, she defended the emergency response and gave details on swift deployment of fire tenders at emergency site. She claimed that the delays that were made were due to traffic and operational issues.