Gul Plaza tragedy triggers governance debate in National Assembly

The fire in Karachi’s Gul Plaza dominated debate in the National Assembly on Tuesday, with MQM-P leader Farooq Sattar describing the blaze as a “national tragedy” and accusing the Sindh government and city authorities of negligence and a delayed response.

He said Karachi’s residents had the right to question both the provincial and federal governments over where the city stood in their list of priorities.

The fire that broke out late on Saturday night at Gul Plaza has killed at least 28 people, while dozens still remain unaccounted for.

Tempers flared in the House as MQM-P members tore up agenda papers and demanded that routine business be suspended to focus solely on the Karachi tragedy. Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar later moved a motion to defer the remaining agenda, which was approved by Deputy Speaker Ghulam Mustafa Shah.

Sattar said decades of neglect had left Karachi critically short of firefighting resources, arguing that the city was undercounted, underrepresented and underfunded. Paying tribute to firefighter Furqan Ali, who died while battling the blaze, he said accountability was unavoidable and that those responsible must seek forgiveness from the public. He renewed calls for stronger local governments, saying a city the size of Karachi could not be run by a chief minister alone.

PPP leader Shehla Raza rejected MQM-P’s criticism, saying it was not necessary for ministers to immediately visit incident sites and that the priority should be effective emergency management. She outlined the official response to the fire, acknowledging delays caused by traffic congestion, and insisted that Sindh had a functioning local government system.

Later, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif echoed calls for empowered local governments, saying it was “humanly impossible” to manage Karachi under the current administrative structure.

Read: Gul Plaza fire toll rises to 28 as DNA testing begins to identify victims

“I am not blaming individuals, I am blaming the system,” he said, arguing that the concentration of authority in provincial capitals had weakened governance.

He said the spirit of the 18th Amendment had yet to be realised, as power had not been meaningfully devolved to the grassroots level. True public empowerment, he said, required a strong and autonomous local government system.

“If there is no empowered local government, there will be no effective fire brigade, no timely emergency response and no accountability at the neighbourhood level,” he said.

Calling the Gul Plaza fire a wake-up call, Asif urged parliament to reflect seriously and pursue constitutional reforms to strengthen local governments.

MQM-P lawmaker Wasim Hussain, responding to remarks by PPP’s Abdul Qadir Patel, accused political rivals of past complicity in Karachi’s problems, including developments linked to Gul Plaza. Patel rejected the allegations, saying the Sindh government was committed to stabilising the city and supporting those affected by the fire.

The debate had opened with Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf lawmaker Shehryar Afridi congratulating Mahmood Khan Achakzai on becoming opposition leader, calling it an honour for Balochistan and the country. He questioned coordination between provincial and federal disaster authorities in the wake of the Karachi fire, while criticising the use of the term “internally displaced persons” for people affected by military operations in the merged districts, saying forced displacement undermined human dignity.

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Afridi alleged that tribal areas had been used to draw funds without the delivery of basic services and called for broader jirga consultations to take all stakeholders into confidence.

The House also saw heated exchanges over security operations in Khyber and Waziristan, with PTI and JUI-F lawmakers protesting against displacement during harsh winter conditions. PTI’s Iqbal Afridi warned that a failure to provide relief could spark protests, while former speaker Asad Qaiser accused the federal government of withholding funds owed to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa under the NFC Award.

Several bills, including a proposed constitutional amendment and institutional legislation, were referred to standing committees before the session was adjourned until 11am on Wednesday.