Rehan Faisal, who owned a bedsheet shop, said that he was able to escape because his shop was located near one of the exits – he broke down the door to get out.
He said that although his staff had heard there was a fire in one part of the market, they had initially not worried because it was located some distance away from them.
“No-one knew it would spread so much,” Faisal added, saying it only took about “five to seven minutes” for everything to “burn before our eyes”.
Shoiab, 19, who worked at a decorations shop, said he first heard about the fire on a lower floor at around 22:00 local time (17:00 GMT) on Saturday night.
“Many customers and shopkeepers were coming up… and saying there was a fire downstairs. I was just beginning to comprehend the situation when the shop owner told me to lock up and get out,” he told BBC Urdu.
“Then suddenly everything was covered with smoke – we couldn’t see anything and there was panic and confusion everywhere. People were just running here and there. I knew some ways to get out of the plaza. But the first exit I tried was locked and the crowds were too dense for me to go the other way.”
With the facility due to close soon, most of the gates of the shopping centre were locked. Senior police official Syed Asad Raza told Reuters news agency that all but three of the centre’s 16 exits were locked.
Shoiab was among the luckier ones. He fainted amid the smoke, but someone – he doesn’t know who – pulled him out of the building to safety.
Another colleague who was trying to escape with him is still missing.