Six months on, police fail to submit charge sheet in Gul Plaza fire case
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KARACHI: After nearly six months, police have still failed to submit the final charge sheet in the case of Gul Plaza inferno that claimed the lives of 72 individuals on the night of January 17, 2026. A source familiar with the matter, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told Dawn that the police would fix the responsibility on four union officials — Tanveer Pasta, Amar Ismail, Muhammad Ramazan and Muhammad Ameen — as well as the owner of an artificial flower shop and his teenage son, who were still at large. A month ago, the investigating officer of the case had attempted to submit the charge sheet but it was returned back to him as the prosecution had highlighted defects in the report. However, the investigating officer has still failed to submit the charge sheet before the court and has not been able to rectify the defects identified earlier. Prosecution has asked IO to include site inspection reports, details of former union officials before filing final report in court The source claimed that, during the investigation it was revealed that no union official had contacted the emergency services at the time of the incident, nor had they prevented the teenage boy from running the shop in the absence of his father, which allegedly led to the fire that reduced the ground-plus-three-storey building to ruins, with parts of it collapsing. The source further said that the investigation found the exit gates were closed and that fire safety equipment was absent from the plaza. It was also revealed in the alleged forensic report that no explosive or ignitable substances were found. Earlier, a month ago, the prosecution had returned the charge sheet because it did not include inspection reports from the relevant authorities, documents related to the plaza, or details of former union officials. The prosecution also advised the investigating officer to fix liabilities and obtain records of a case lodged by the anti-corruption authorities over the alleged unauthorised constr