Zubair Qureshi Islamabad
Around 500 shops out of 2,743 were destroyed in a huge fire that broke out Wednesday morning in Islamabad’s Weekly Bazaar located at Peshawar Morr in the H-9 Sector.
The initial reports suggest that fire started in the garments section of the market at around 11:00 a.m. and spread to the nearby sections where carpet shops, cloth shops and shoes stores are located. Since it was an off-day as Weekly Bazaar is held three days a week, on Sunday, Tuesday and Friday, and there were no customers no loss of life was reported.
As fire swept away the Weekly Bazaar, dark clouds could be seen from a long distance hovering over the federal capital for hours leading to various speculations.
The shopkeepers’ goods worth millions of rupees were gutted and one could see emotional scenes at the site where shopkeepers were mourning their loss and exchanging harsh words with the members of the fire brigade teams as the rescue workers were asking them to stay away and not to risk their lives in an attempt to save their goods. Besides CDA/MCI fire brigades, Pakistan Navy, Air Force and the Rawalpindi fire brigades also participated in the operation and extinguished the flames completely after hours of firefighting.
On the other hand, the shopkeepers blamed the rescue teams for coming late and urged the administration to ensure no such fire breaks out in future.
It was the 5th occasion when fire engulfed the weekly bazaar and last time it was reported in December 2022, when around 133 shops were destroyed.
On Wednesday, however, by the time the fire brigade and rescue teams could arrive and control the fire much of the damage had been done and the shopkeepers had lost goods worth millions of rupees to the flames.
According to the sources, goods worth Rs90 million were destroyed according to the estimates. As the news of the fire was broken on the national media, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, Chief Commissioner and Chairman of the Capital Development Authority Muhammad Ali Randhawa and Inspector General of Police Islamabad Ali Nasir Rizvi rushed to the scene and personally monitored the rescue operation.
Later, briefing the media, CDA Chairman said a committee had been constituted on the directions of the Interior Minister that would submit its report within seven days regarding the cause of the incident and estimate of loss. He also assured the shopkeepers that their losses would be paid and the shops would be rebuilt.
According to the sources, Prime Minister Mian Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif has given clear instructions to compensate the affected shopkeepers with the loss and a committee with the members from the ICT, CDA and the shopkeepers’ representatives would decide the amount of compensation.
