KARACHI: Justice Agha Faisal of the Sindh High Court, who headed the Gul Plaza Judicial Commission, on Tuesday handed over to the provincial government the report of an inquiry into the Jan 17 fire that claimed lives of over 70 people.

The sealed inquiry report was formally handed over to Sindh Law Secretary Ali Ahmed Baloch, who appeared before the commission.

Last week, the commission had concluded its probe and informed the law secretary about the conclusion of the proceedings.

According to the law secretary, he will hand over the report to the Sindh chief secretary.

He said it was the prerogative of the provincial government to decide whether the inquiry report was to be brought into the public domain or otherwise.

Sources said the report would be presented before the Sindh cabinet, which will take the decision whether to make the report public or not.

The commission was constituted under Section 3 of the Sindh Tribunals of Inquiry Ordinance 1969 vide gazette notification, issued on Feb 10, to scrutinise the devastating inferno at Gul Plaza Shopping Centre as per the terms of reference stated in the notification while the period prescribed for completion of the inquiry was eight weeks.

As per the police surgeon, 73 people had lost their lives in the deadly inferno which erupted on the night of Jan 17 and took nearly two days to be fully extinguished, leaving the ground-plus-three-storey building of Gul Plaza in ruins, with some of its sections collapsed.

Published in Dawn, April 8th, 2026