Karachi: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said the system of proper inspection of electrical systems at every commercial establishment under a British colonial-era law has to be revived to prevent frequent fire incidents in Karachi.
Shah was speaking at a ceremony to give compensation cheques of a total of Rs445 million to 358 traders in Karachi whose shops were destroyed in two separate fire incidents last year. The compensation was paid to enable the affected traders to restart their businesses during the Eid Al Fitr shopping season.
There have been frequent fire incidents in Karachi, often at industrial and commercial establishments, mainly due to a lack of fire safety systems. The system utterly lacks resources to deal with fire emergencies given the sheer size of the provincial capital. Factories and commercial centres often catch fire on Sundays, the weekly holiday, when human intervention is often missing to prevent the disaster.
The CM mentioned that along with the government it was also the responsibility of every citizen that proper equipment was present for fire safety at their homes and businesses as small mistakes had often been the cause behind the massive tragedies.
He lamented that traders had done away with the system of inspections under a law dating back to 1913 for checking electrical wirings and generators at their shops.
He acknowledged that the practice of electrical inspections had been halted as it had become problematic for the traders concerned as they complained that they were made to pay bribes under the system.
He said that if a good system had become corrupt then it didn’t mean that it should be scrapped altogether.
He urged the Karachi’s Administrator and the leadership of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce & Industry (KCCI) to sit together and find a way to revive the system of electrical inspections after sorting out problems.
Similarly, the CM also acknowledged that the Civil Defence Organisation had to beef up its work to ensure that every shop had proper safety equipment for preventing fire incidents. He said the system to check the availability of medical first-aid and fire safety equipment at every shop had been present since the time he had been a school student.
Shah noted that the Banquet Hall of the CM House where the ceremony was in progress to give the compensation cheques didn’t have any fire extinguishers and told the officials concerned to immediately install the same as fire emergencies could happen anywhere.
