Call for law to set up central fire safety regulatory body

NGOs decry non-implementation of existing laws, absence of fire safety measures
in high-rises; demand compensation for families of Regent Plaza fire victims

Addressing a presser held in the wake of the Regent Plaza hotel fire, concerned non-governmental organisations (NGOs) criticised the absence of a law under which a central regulatory body could be set up to oversee implementation of mandatory fire safety regulations in commercial buildings and high-rises.

Representatives of the NGOs’ concerned on Wednesday said the situation with respect to application of fire safety laws was more or less the same in the entire country, where no regulatory body existed. However, the federal capital was considered an exception with a proper safety law, The Islamabad Fire Prevention and Life Safety Regulation, was adopted in 2010.

The officials observed that at present fire safety rules were included in only chapters 13 and 14 of the Karachi Building and Town Planning Regulations, 2002, but their utility, relevance and effectiveness had become limited over time.

Advocate M Nadeem A Shaikh, president of Justice Helpline, lamented that his NGO had authored a proper set of fire safety laws titled, Karachi Fire Service Act, 2015, some two years ago, with the help of former chief fire officer of the city, Syed Kazmi Ali, but the proposed safety laws were yet to adopted by the concerned governmental authorities.

The proposed act includes a central regulatory mechanism and all kinds of fire safety and prevention measures for buildings constructed all over the city, irrespective of jurisdictions of the several land controlling agencies of Karachi.

Advocate Shaikh said the Hotel Regent Plaza fire tragedy had once again brought to fore the necessity of adopting effective safety laws.

“The regulatory mechanism should include strict punishments, including imposition of fines and other punishments for owners of high-rises and commercial buildings found to be violating the safety rules.”

The proposed central fire safety services and regulatory body should work under the KMC being sole municipal authority of the city, he added.

Gulzar Memon, a retired chief engineer of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) said inspectors should regularly carry out strict visits and impose fines and punishments on owners whose buildings did not have proper electrical systems.

Citing the Regent Plaza fire, he said mere visits and issuing warnings to managements of commercial buildings had so far failed to produce desired results.

National Forum for Environment Health president, Naeem Qureshi, said the presence of a number of agencies such as the provincial disaster management authority and Civil Defence Organisation had not done enough to make multi-storey buildings adopt fire safety measures.

Qureshi said the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) had been negligent of its duties as construction of high-rise buildings without fire safety measures continued to be allowed.

He urged the government to announce financial compensation for bereaved families of the Regent Plaza hotel fire victims.  

The NFEH president said that before the Regent Plaza incident, the city had already witnessed massive fire tragedies such as the Baldia factory, Timber Market and Bolton Market fires, and further claimed that on an average 30 fire related incidents occur in Karachi in a single year.