KARACHI: The opposition leader in the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) on Friday announced plans to table a no-confidence motion against Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab, accusing the city administration of failing to protect citizens amid a series of deadly incidents across the metropolis.
Addressing a press conference, Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Karachi Naib Emir and KMC opposition leader Saifuddin Advocate said the city had been in mourning since the Gul Plaza tragedy, which claimed dozens of lives and wiped out the livelihoods of hundreds of families.
He said Karachiites felt abandoned as incidents continued to claim lives, including deaths caused by water tanker accidents, dog bites and street crimes, with no one willing to take responsibility.
Saifuddin alleged that criminal elements had overwhelmed the city, adding that the authorities equated governance with merely holding meetings. “Governance will be visible when institutions perform their duties fully and on time,” he said.
He also held Karachi Commissioner Syed Hassan Naqvi responsible for what he termed negligence, recalling that Jamaat-e-Islami chief Hafiz Naeemur Rehman had earlier pointed out institutional failures and mismanagement in the city.
“We had already said that all institutions in Karachi have collapsed, but the government refuses to accept this reality,” he said, alleging that the Sindh government wanted all civic institutions to operate under its direct control.
Referring to a recent report on the Gul Plaza fire, Saifuddin said it merely outlined the sequence of events and prevailing conditions, without fixing responsibility.
Meanwhile, the deadly blaze — which claimed 80 lives — prompted the Sindh government to announce a judicial inquiry into the incident. Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, Sindh Senior Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon said the incident would be investigated through a judicial commission.
Subsequently, the provincial government wrote to the chief justice of the Sindh High Court (SHC), seeking the formation of a judicial panel headed by a serving judge of the high court.
Karachi’s worst fire in over a decade broke out on January 17 and rapidly engulfed the sprawling Gul Plaza shopping complex, home to around 1,200 family-owned shops selling wedding apparel, toys, crockery and other goods.
According to the investigation report, information about the fire was received at 10:26pm, after which one fire tender and a water bowser were dispatched three minutes later, at 10:29pm.
