Gul Plaza, SBCA, and the human cost of bad governance

The devastating fire at Gul Plaza, a landmark shopping centre on Karachi’s MA Jinnah Road, is not merely an accident or an unfortunate lapse in safety compliance. It is a grim reminder that poor governance kills.

As rescue operations continue and the death toll rises in the aftermath, what is already evident is that this tragedy was foreseeable, preventable, and rooted in institutional failure rather than fate.

Gul Plaza was an old, densely packed commercial building with hundreds of shops spread across its basement and upper floors, with inadequate emergency exits and fire safety systems. Despite its prominence and heavy daily footfall, reports indicate that the building lacked critical emergency exits and fire-venting infrastructure — features that should have been enforced long ago by the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA). Ensuring compliance with these standards is not optional; it is the statutory responsibility of the authority charged with public safety.

The question is not whether a short circuit or another trigger caused the fire; it is why a structure with known safety deficiencies was allowed to operate for decades. The answer lies in institutional decay and bad governance.

To be fair to individual officers, the SBCA itself has been rendered structurally weak. Over the last several years, the post of director-general (DG) appears to have been treated as a portable office rather than a strategic leadership position. Multiple DGs have been rotated and replaced in rapid succession,........

© Dawn Prism