Gul plaza blaze

Karachi has once again buried its dead under the rubble of official indifference. The inferno at Gul Plaza in Saddar, which broke out around 10pm on Saturday, has so far claimed at least 21 lives, with dozens still unaccounted for. More damning than the numbers, however, is the fact that nearly 40 hours later, the fire had still not been fully extinguished. This was a grotesque exhibition of systemic failure - of a city left to burn while those entrusted with its safety offered little beyond hollow condolences.

The cost of living in this city is never fully paid. It is painted over while its infrastructure remains rotten to the core, and all the provincial government has to offer are consolatory words. Karachi's commercial buildings function outside any credible safety regime. Fire audits, if conducted at all, exist on paper. Encroachments are regularised and compliance is negotiated rather than enforced. In this ecosystem of wilful blindness, catastrophe becomes an eventuality. One could argue that these accidents are tragic, but unforeseeable. That they are instead, "lessons" and "should not be politicised," as PPP Senator Sherry Rehman stated yesterday. But this was not the first time Gul Plaza caught fire. It happened in 2008 and in 2016 and was bound to happen again owing to its poor infrastructure, weak safety regulations, narrow corridors, lack of designated fire exits or even basic emergency protocols. Despite the warning signs, Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah and Mayor Murtaza Wahab have once again hidden behind familiar remarks of 'ordering strict implementation of fire safety rules hereon'.

The deeper tragedy lies in how accountability is endlessly deferred. Why is it that Karachi must first sacrifice its people to receive even the most basic infrastructure? And why must this cycle repeat endlessly? The people of this city have had enough.