KARACHI: The Sindh government apart from providing support to Karachi Metropolitan Corporation to beef up its firefighting system is also ready to work with industrial zones and commercial centres in the city to enhance their safety systems so as to tackle any fire or similar disaster.
Sindh Local Government Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah stated this while speaking as the chief guest at the 9th Fire Safety & Security Convention-2019, jointly organized by the National Forum for Environment and Health (NFEH) and the Fire Protection Association of Pakistan (FPAP).
He said that the fire safety measures should be fully up to the mark at industrial zones, commercial centres, and multi-storied buildings as people in large number were present at any given time at these places in the city whose safety should be duly ensured in case of a fire incident.
He also said that keeping in view large number of high-rise buildings in Karachi, the Sindh government had purchased a snorkel of international standards for the KMC so as to beef up its firefighting capabilities. He said that similar more snorkels and other firefighting equipment for the KMC and other municipal agencies in rest of the province would also be purchased. He said that it was the responsibility of the government and its relevant agencies that fire safety measures should be adopted in industrial zones, commercial centres, and high-rise buildings, but at times, slackness was observed by the government authorities in fulfilling such obligations.
He further said that Sindh government had been doing its best to upgrade, repair, and improve civic and municipal infrastructure in the city including the provision of the road network, water supply, and sewerage system. The provincial minister said that assistance of the World Bank was being sought in upgrading the civic infrastructure of the city. He said that the garbage disposal campaign launched by the Sindh government for Karachi was not just for one month as it would continue until complete resolution of this issue.
