H-9 Weekly Bazaar | Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: The recurring incidents of fire at the H-9 Weekly Bazaar in the federal capital have exposed safety gaps besides causing heavy financial losses to traders and civic agencies. Sources point out that the failure of city managers to ensure the “dawn-to-dusk” policy has turned the H-9 Weekly Bazaar into a permanent shopping area. They said stallholders keep their goods on-site against the rules, posing a permanent fire risk. It was further reported that a fire tender was also missing when a blaze broke out on Tuesday. The recent fire, which engulfed over 374 stalls out of a total 2,749, once again left stallholders in distress, with garments worth millions of rupees reduced to ashes. This was the fifth major fire incident in the bazaar over the past nine years. Although the cause of the latest fire has yet to be determined by an inquiry committee, concerns remain that further incidents could occur if proper measures are not taken, as vendors store their goods in stalls like warehouses and cover them wi...