The sub-committee of the Senate Standing Committee on ports and shipping, has rejected earlier reports as "unsatisfactory" on the causes of the two fire incidents at Pakistan National Shipping Corporation (PNSC) building, which had cost the Corporation around of Rs 700 million.
The sub-committee meeting, which was held at PNSC building on Thursday with Senator Gulshan Saeed in the chair, has decided to constitute another 10-member committee to "remove ambiguities" about the causes of the devastating fires on Sundays, February 18, 2007 and August 19, 2007. The two "mysterious" fires had left the PNSC premises facing the Arabian Sea in shambles and all fire-fighting efforts in vain.
Others who attended the meeting were Committee Member Senator Javed Ali Shah, Chairman Port Qasim Authority Rear Admiral Syed Afzal, Chairman PNSC Vice Admiral Sikandar Viqar Naqvi, PNSC's Director Finance Imtiaz C Agboatwala, Director Commercial Aftab Siddiqui, Director Admin Brigadier Rashid Siddiqui, Director Ship Management Commodore Ubaidullah, Colonel Zaidi, Hassan Zaidi Secretary Ports and Shipping and other officials.
The third member of the committee, Senator Dr Mohammad Ali Brohi, was not present at the meeting and the PQA chief attended the meeting in his previous capacity of federal government's committee chairman on PNSC fire.
The new committee would have representatives from the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and Intelligence Bureau (IB), along with other neutral experts as its members, Gulshan Saeed, Chairperson of the sub-committee told newsmen in the Conference Room of PNSC.
"We are dissatisfied with the earlier report, therefore another committee will be formed within a week to ascertain the real causes of the fire," she said rejecting the idea that the blaze was a deliberate move to destroy some records.
She said her committee was not satisfied with the earlier report on PNSC fire, which was prepared by an expert from Hong Kong and had declared "electric short circuit" as a possible reason for the blaze.
The committee had also taken note of the "point of view" of some PNSC employees, said the senator. Lauding the present PNSC chairman for taking the required precautionary measures, the committee chairperson said the previous management of the corporation should have moved more actively to extinguish the devastating fires, which could not be possible without well-equipped fire-fighting equipment and force.
She said the committee had also summoned the former PNSC chairman to the meeting, but he was out of the country, and would attend the next meetings to be held on weekly basis till a final outcome. To a query regarding the occurrence of the two fires on Sundays, the senator said the committee "is still wondering."
About suspected culprits of the incidents, Senator Javed Ali Shah while declining to accuse anyone before the facts were fully ascertained, vowed that those found guilty would be brought to justice.
On the occasion, Chairman PNSC Vice Admiral Sikandar Viqar Naqvi told the media that the fires had cost the PNSC around Rs 700 million including the ongoing renovation work, while damages to the infrastructure of the building were calculated at Rs 190 million.
To avoid such incidents in future, he said, the PNSC had acquired a state-of-the-art automated fire-fighting system of international standard and a highly trained fire-fighting team with a capability to extinguish the fire "within a minute." Earlier, the meeting also investigated the recruitment of employees on contract basis without giving an advertisement in media.
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