Rescue 1122 given under home department's control

The Punjab government has given the administrative control of Punjab Emergency Service (Rescue 1122) to Home Department with immediate effect. Earlier, the Punjab Emergency Service (Rescue 1122) was under the administrative control of Planning and Development Department.
The decision to this effect was taken to further improve the operational efficiency of the service through proper administrative control, sources told Business Recorder, here on Thursday.
The Home Department has been asked to develop an efficient and effective mechanism for exercising administrative control over the Punjab Emergency Service (Rescue 1122), which would include effective monitoring without hampering the operational autonomy of the Service, the sources said.
According to these sources, the Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has directed the authorities concerned to further improve the operational efficiency of the service. It may be mentioned that the Punjab Emergency Service (Rescue 1122) is the first successfully tested model of trained emergency service in Pakistan. The Government of Punjab established this service through legislation to provide a system for emergency preparedness, response and prevention.
The service maintained its record emergency response time less than seven minutes and rescued thousands of victims in accidents and disasters, an official of the Rescue 1122 said. According to him, during the last three years, the service conducted around 78,000 operations consisting of 36,550 road accidents, over 40,000 medical emergencies, over 2,000 fire incidents, 276 building collapses and 82 explosions.
The official told this scribe that the service was initiated from Lahore in October 2004, where it had rescued over 65,000 emergency victims in 73,575 rescue operations consisting of road accidents, medical emergencies, fire break-outs, building collapses and explosions.
After performing well in Lahore, the government launched the rescue service in Faisalabad, where it had helped over 2500 emergency victims in rescue operations consisting of road accidents, medical emergencies, fire break-outs and building collapses, he added.
Afterward, the service was launched in Rawalpindi, where it rescued over 3000 emergency victims in operations consisting of road accidents, medical emergencies, fire break-outs, building collapses and explosions.
The official said the rescue staff had undergone specialised training through master trainers at the Emergency Service Academy. The training was the first of its kind in the country to bring local trainers at par with international trainers, he added.
The official said expansion of this comprehensive Emergency Response Infrastructure to other cities of Punjab is underway and in this regard the District Emergency Officers, Emergency Officers and Station House Incharge have already been posted at Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Multan, Gujranwala, Sargodha, Bahawalpur, D G Khan, Sialkot and Murree.
International Standards have been followed at all levels in establishment of this service, he said. He further said the Punjab Emergency Service is successfully running its Fire Service in Lahore which is the first modern Fire Service of the country.