KARACHI: Rejecting an application seeking the addition of murder and terrorism charges, a judicial magistrate accepted the charge sheet in the Gul Plaza fire case on Wednesday, in which the police blamed the building management’s “negligence”.

The deadly inferno, which erupted on the night of January 17 at the shopping mall and took nearly two days to be fully extinguished, had claimed at least 73 lives and left over 1,100 shops in ruins.

Judicial Magistrate (South) Aasim Aslam pronounced his order on Wednesday, in which he accepted the final charge sheet filed by the second investigating officer of the case.

Accepting the charge sheet, the judge also dismissed the application filed by five shop owners in which they sought to include charges of murder and terrorism in the FIR.

Accepts final charge sheet against four members of management committee, owner of flower shop and his 11-year-old son

Earlier, the IO had named the management of Gul Plaza and a shopkeeper and his underage son as accused and exonerated the Sindh Building Control Authority, Fire Brigade, Rescue 1122, Civil Defence and district administration from any negligence on their part in the charge sheet.

The IO chargesheeted four members of Gul Plaza Management Committee — Tanveer Pasta, Amar Ismail, Muhammad Ramazan and Muhammad Ameen — and the owner of an artificial flower shop, Naimatullah, and his over 11-year-old son Huzaifa in the case.

The IO listed 87 prosecution witnesses in the case and submitted that criminal negligence and carelessness were established against the persons named as accused in the investigation report and charged them for offences under Section 322 (manslaughter), 377-H (i) (punishment for hurt by rash or negligent act), 436 (mischief by fire or explosive substance with intent to destroy house, etc.), 427 (mischief causing damage to the amount of fifty rupees) and 285 (negligent conduct with respect to fire or combustible matter) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Initially, the police had filed a charge sheet in July, listing the same set of persons as accused, but the court had rejected the same and ordered a thorough and satisfactory investigation by a Deputy Superintendent of Police.

Published in Dawn, October 29th, 2026

KARACHI: A man accused of stealing over 50 mobile phones from women after luring them to a farmhouse in Gadap under the pretext of job interviews was beaten by the aggrieved during a court appearance on Tuesday.

The suspect was arrested by the police on Monday for his alleged involvement in stealing the mobile phones of 59 women, who were brought to the farmhouse in October under the pretext of a job interview.

He was presented before the Malir judicial magistrate on Tuesday. During the hearing, the investigating officer (IO) informed the magistrate that the suspect was arrested yesterday and mobile phones had been recovered from his possession.

The officer said that more mobile phones needed to be recovered, while the suspect’s accomplices were also at large. He requested physical remand of the suspect, which the court approved, granting police one-day physical remand.

Meanwhile, a number of the affected women were present at the premises. In a video seen by Dawn, the women could be seen asking the police to show the suspect’s face, gathering around him and then proceeding to beat him with slippers and slap him.

As the suspect tried to move away, the group of women could be seen chasing him until the police took the suspect inside a room.

A day earlier, Malir Senior Superintendent of Police Dr Abdul Khaliq Pirzada told Dawn that the police had recovered 40 mobile phones from the suspect’s possession.

Acting on a tip-off, police arrested the prime suspect while he was on his way to sell 40 mobile phones in an attempt to “destroy” evidence.

Pirzada said police had obtained clues suggesting that the remaining 19 mobile phones were in the possession of another absconding suspect. Concerted efforts were underway to arrest him, he added.

The Malir SSP said the main suspect, allegedly with a female suspect’s help, had created a WhatsApp group and placed job advertisements to lure the women. He subsequently hired a bus and took them to the farmhouse.

A first information report, invoking Section 379 (punishment for theft), Section 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), and Section 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code was registered with the Gadap City police station on the complaint of one of the victims.