Aamir Latif
22 January 2026•Update: 22 January 2026
KARACHI, Pakistan
Piles of burned carpets, bags, crockery and other goods lay around smoke-blackened building of Gul Plaza on M.A Jinnah road, a busy commercial artery in historical business district of Pakistan's commercial capital Karachi.
Rescue workers backed by excavators and locators continued digging through charred debris on the sixth day on Thursday in search for dozens of people who have gone missing after a massive fire ripped through the three-story building last week.
Hundreds of desperate shopkeepers and family members of the missing people stood meters away the charred building awaiting for a miracle, although rescuers see "very slim" chances of any survivors inside the badly burned structure.
The fire - deadliest in more than a decade - broke out on late Saturday night at the three-story building that houses about 1,200 shops, not only killed at least 60 people, but also raised questions about urban governance, particularly fire safety and rescue capacity.
Rescuers have so far pulled out bodies or remains of at least 60 people, fearing a rise in death toll as dozens are still missing.
"It was a doomsday scene as hundreds of people jostled to exit the building, while yelling and screaming," Mohammad Faisal, one of the survivors told Anadolu.
Dozens of them, however, could not manage to exit and were trapped on the upper floors as giant plumes of fire and thick smoke engulfed the building within minutes.
Javed Nabi Khoso, deputy commissioner of Karachi's southern district, told Anadolu that the search operation will continue till the recovery of last survivor or body.
Poor safety standards, rescue capacity
Karachi is no new to fires and other urban disasters, mainly because of lax regulations and non-implementation of safety standards.
Last year, some 1,700 fire incidents, mostly at small-scale, were recorded across Karachi- home to 20 million people, according to official statistics.
The latest fire, the deadliest after 2012 factory fire in Karachi that killed 289 people, has raised questions about governance, poor urban planning, and lack of fire safety measures, pushing the ruling Pakistan People's Party ( PPP) on the back foot.
The center-left PPP - also a coalition partner in the central government - has been ruling the southern Sindh province, of which Karachi is the capital, for the last 18 years.
Shopkeepers accused the authorities of not launching a timely rescue and fire fighting operation, which could have saved several lives and contained the fire.
The provincial government and Karachi's mayor Murtaza Wahab, however, denied the charge but they acknowledged the lack of safety standards in the metropolis.
Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has given a three-day ultimatum to the government and private offices and high-rise buildings to implement the fire safety standards.
Analysts, however, see the task "unachievable" saying the issue demands a "serious" policy review.
"The city has become ungovernable due to decades of bad governance, unplanned urbanization, absence of a proper firefighting system and non-implementation of safety standards by builders," said Mazhar Abbas, a Karachi-based political analyst.
According to Kazim Ali, Karachi's former chief fire safety officer, the metropolis currently has only 1,000 trained firefighters compared to required number of at least 15,000.
