Blaze destroys hundreds of shops
As the dust settled, the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) traded barbs
KARACHI:
A massive fire swept through the country’s largest timber market in Karachi on Sunday, destroying as many as 250 shops and 50 warehouses.
The fire, which broke out around 12:30am in Old Haji Camp – one of the city’s most densely populated areas – took as much as 12 hours to extinguish. As firefighters ran desperately from one end to another to arrange water and other materials to fight the blaze, shopkeepers of Old Haji Camp looked on helplessly as their homes and sources of income were razed to the ground.
As the dust settled, the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) traded barbs over the incident.
MQM leaders accused the PPP provincial government of negligence and called for the resignations of Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah and Information Minister Sharjeel Memon. “Over 90% of the damage occurred due to PPP government’s negligence,” said MNA Farooq Sattar. “The ministers of Sindh slept as Karachi burnt,” said Rabita Committee In-Charge Qamar Mansoor.
“All allegations levelled by MQM are baseless,” said Sharjeel Memon in response. “We believe in practical politics… It will be an injustice to the people of Karachi to make this tragedy a political issue.”
Memon said the fire brigade staff was informed of the fire at 1:19am after which fire tenders reached the spot within minutes. He added that issues in the workings of Karachi Metropolitan Corporation and Water and Sewerage Board were due to ghost employees and insinuated many of them belonged to the MQM.
“There are employees who live in South Africa, Dubai and other countries but are paid by these departments,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Sindh government has constituted a two-member committee to investigate the fire tragedy.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 29th, 2014.
A massive fire swept through the country’s largest timber market in Karachi on Sunday, destroying as many as 250 shops and 50 warehouses.
The fire, which broke out around 12:30am in Old Haji Camp – one of the city’s most densely populated areas – took as much as 12 hours to extinguish. As firefighters ran desperately from one end to another to arrange water and other materials to fight the blaze, shopkeepers of Old Haji Camp looked on helplessly as their homes and sources of income were razed to the ground.
As the dust settled, the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) traded barbs over the incident.
MQM leaders accused the PPP provincial government of negligence and called for the resignations of Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah and Information Minister Sharjeel Memon. “Over 90% of the damage occurred due to PPP government’s negligence,” said MNA Farooq Sattar. “The ministers of Sindh slept as Karachi burnt,” said Rabita Committee In-Charge Qamar Mansoor.
“All allegations levelled by MQM are baseless,” said Sharjeel Memon in response. “We believe in practical politics… It will be an injustice to the people of Karachi to make this tragedy a political issue.”
Memon said the fire brigade staff was informed of the fire at 1:19am after which fire tenders reached the spot within minutes. He added that issues in the workings of Karachi Metropolitan Corporation and Water and Sewerage Board were due to ghost employees and insinuated many of them belonged to the MQM.
“There are employees who live in South Africa, Dubai and other countries but are paid by these departments,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Sindh government has constituted a two-member committee to investigate the fire tragedy.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 29th, 2014.