LAHORE: Burning of six siblings live in Lahore yesterday due to the late arrival of the fire brigade crew on a push-start vehicle has raised serious question on the good governance of the Punjab government, said MianManzoor Ahmed Wattoo, President PPP Central Punjab in a statement issued from here on Monday. The horror of yesterday has raised to the ground the myth of good governance of the Punjab government, he commented.
He said that the heart of the people of Punjab went out to the parents on the loss of precious lives of the family who were cursing the fire brigade in pinning down the responsibility for the incident.
He said that he was forced by his conscience to issue the statement condemning the performance of the Punjab government with the sole purpose of preventing the reoccurrence of such tragic incidents in the future resulting in loss of life and property. The criminal negligence of the government functionaries was both appalling and unforgiving, he added.
He said that he was shocked to know that the fire brigade vehicle was not road worthy and the water pipe was worn out and therefore the crew had to resort to the water supplied by the locals in buckets. The fire could have extinguished earlier and probably lives would have been saved if the firefighting gear of the fire brigade had been in functional order, he pointed out.
He maintained that the Punjab Government had failed to protect the life and property of the people yet again because its focus was on the show piece projects like Metro Bus and Metro Train instead of improving city infrastructure meant to protect the life and property of the people. It would have cost a fraction of allocations to upgrade the fire brigade of the provincial capital, he argued.
He recalled the horror of LDA plaza inferno that could not be controlled because the city fire brigade had no equipment to reach to upper floors to extinguish the fire. The victims had to jump out of the windows to embrace certain death in their bid to save them from the raging fire following them, he pointed out.
He extended deep condolences on behalf of PPP and on his behalf to the bereaved family and prayed for the eternal peace for the departed souls.
INP/
