The devastating fire at Gul Plaza in Karachi, one of the worst commercial fire incidents in the city in recent years, has once again shaken public confidence in our ability to protect human life and enforce basic safety standards. While investigations continue, one thing is already clear: this tragedy was preventable, yet prevention often comes only after disaster strikes.
For many Pakistanis, this event evokes haunting memories of earlier industrial fires in Karachi, including the infamous Baldia Town garment factory blaze in 2012, which killed at least 260 workers, and multiple warehouse and mall fires over the past decade. The Karachi fire in 2012 at Ali Enterprises remains the country’s deadliest industrial disaster, with investigations later revealing locked exits, barred windows, and severely inadequate safety mechanisms. For the Gul Plaza inferno, the real cause is still unknown; however, the SBCA records reveal the precarious state of the building’s infrastructure, including structural vulnerabilities and insufficient safety measures.
These tragedies are not random acts of misfortune. They reflect systemic failures in building regulation, enforcement of safety codes, and corporate responsibility. In Pakistan, workplace safety regulations often exist on paper but are rarely enforced effectively. Independent observers have repeatedly criticised the lack of functional labour inspections and enforcement mechanisms, leaving employers free to operate with minimal oversight over fire and occupational health risks. The incident is clearly a result of poor governance rather than fate.
To understand these failures in a structured way, the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) offer a globally recognised framework for thinking about rights, responsibilities, and accountability. While Gul Plaza is a commercial building rather than a corporation, the UNGPs provide a useful lens to understand responsibilities. The most relevant pillar here is the state’s duty to protect human life through regulation and enforcement. Building owners also bear moral and ethical responsibilities to ensure safety for tenants and workers, although the framework is primarily designed for business enterprises.
This tragedy was preventable, yet when prevention is delayed or ignored, it costs lives
The UNGPs rest on three pillars: the state's duty to protect, the corporate responsibility to respect, and access to remedy. These pillars state that governments should protect human rights against abuse by third parties, including businesses, through laws, regulations, and enforcement, while businesses must avoid infringing on rights and take steps to mitigate adverse impacts, including conducting due diligence on safety risks. When rights are violated, affected individuals should have access to effective judicial and non-judicial remedies.
The UNGPs do not create new legal obligations, but they codify internationally accepted expectations for state and corporate conduct. In contexts where enforcement is weak or legal protections are uneven, they are extremely useful as normative benchmarks for accountability and advocacy.
The recurring pattern of such disasters suggests that Pakistan’s legal and regulatory framework is failing on every pillar of this model. Firstly, while Pakistan has labour and building safety laws, their enforcement is inconsistent and insufficient. Inspections are rare, punishments for violations are weak, and implementation is uncoordinated. A genuine culture of prevention, mandated inspections before occupancy, regular compliance checks, and consequences for violations remains absent.
Secondly, owners and operators of commercial buildings and factories often fail to conduct basic safety due diligence, such as installing fire exits, alarms, sprinkler systems, or adequate evacuation routes. Where these systems exist, they are sometimes bypassed or disabled. Thirdly, even when tragedies occur, accountability is slow or absent. In the case of the 2012 Baldia factory fire, legal proceedings dragged on for years with little closure for survivors’ families.
The Gul Plaza fire exposes more than just compliance failures; it highlights deep-seated governance problems. Safety standards are often weakly drafted, enforcement institutions are under-resourced, and penalties for violations are minimal compared with the economic incentives to cut corners. In many cases, government responses are reactive rather than preventive, with attention, political will, and resources only intensifying after a tragedy shocks public consciousness. It appears that leaders and business owners disregard basic safety norms and neglect their duty and responsibility to protect people.
This tragedy was preventable, yet when prevention is delayed or ignored, it costs lives. Frameworks like the UNGPs offer a lens to understand and diagnose where systems fail, but they cannot ensure safety without political will, legal enforcement, and accountability. For Pakistan’s low- and middle-income workers, market traders, and everyday citizens, human life cannot be negotiable; it must be protected.