LAHORE – Around 40 bodies are still under debris of burnt plazas of the Shah Alam Market, Pakistan Today has leant. The bodies are still untraceable despite a massive operation to clean-up the area but some limbs of people have been found from the place. City District Government Lahore (CDGL) sources revealed that more than a dozen bodies had been brought to the morgue but the government feared to disclose the news in order to avoid public wrath.
Traders of the Shah Alam Market claimed that until now, only two bodies had been recovered and resources of the CDGL were not enough to cope with the situation. Traders claimed that dozens of businessmen were present at the Bahria Centre, Qadri Centre and adjoining plazas but around 30 to 40 people are still missing. According to a news report, limbs of people killed in the fire have been found, whereas the administration is claiming that its staff is working day and night to recover bodies, which is quite a technical task and would take some time.
Local traders’ association chairman Kashif Sheikh told Pakistan Today that public representatives forget people after getting votes and they visited the area for the first time since winning the 2008 general elections. He said that although traders have incurred losses worth millions but their first priority is to pressurise authorities to recover bodies of poor labourers. Kashif said that various politicians have pledged compensation for victims but unfortunately no substantial step has yet been taken.
He said that it looks like the cheques given to fire victims would meet the same fate as the cheques given to flood victims, which had bounced. The trader leader said that the Punjab government was responsible for allowing builders to build plazas illegally and government departments would have to be corruption-free in order to ensure safety requirements. Kashif said that the Punjab government should ask the officers, who had passed maps of illegal buildings.
During a press conference, Lahore DCO Ahad Cheema had claimed that hundreds of labourers would remove debris and recover bodies while Rescue 1122 DG Rizwan Naseer said that under these conditions, we would not kill dozens other people while recovering a few bodies. Traders appreciated role of the Rescue 1122 and said that without the department, nothing could have been done, as the CDGL lacks resources. On asking what should be done in order to stop such incidents in the future, traders said that the Punjab government was silent when plaza owners were building multi-storey buildings.
Mochi Gate residents asked authorities and traders to shift the market in order to save their lives while Cheema said that the government is trying to come up with innovative solutions in order to improve safety measures. Citizens agreed with traders that the Punjab government is underestimating the loss and rebuffed government’s claims to clean debris of burnt plazas within record time.
