KARACHI - A massive fire broke out at around 1pm on Friday at Sindh MPA Shehla Raza’s office in Karachi. Her office is located in the Old Sindh Secretariat. Raza, the former deputy speaker of the Sindh Assembly, is the incumbent women development minister. She was not in her office at the time of the fire and all the staff was safely evacuated. Three rooms were engulfed in the fire and the documents and computers in them were destroyed.
The fire broke out in the women complaint cell room and then spread to Raza’s office and her private secretary’s office. There was reportedly a lot of woodwork in Raza’s room, which added to the blaze. The roof also collapsed. The fire was extinguished after an hour.
Raza blamed the fire on a short circuit and said ACs were being repaired because they stopped working the day before. The official cause of the fire hasn’t been ascertained yet. This isn’t the first fire that has broken out at the Sindh Secretariat. Raza’s office is near other provincial department offices, such as those of the information minister and energy minister and there was a threat that they too may catch fire.
On April 10 this year, an oil tanker carrying thousands of litres of fuel exploded and caught fire after overturning on Gulbai Flyover in Shershah area of Karachi.
Fire was also spread to the nearby vehicles and godown. The blaze was caused by the oil spill from the tanker which later burst into pieces.
The fire tenders had brought the blaze under control after a firefighting effort for several hours.
In June 2017, in a major disaster at least 140 people were killed and more than 100 others were injured when an oil tanker had caught fire after overturning on National Highway near Ahmedpur Sharqia (East) in Bahawalpur.
