The United Nations' Office of Coordination on Humanitarian Affairs (UN-OCHA) has invited the Director General Punjab Emergency Services (Rescue 1122) Dr Rizwan Naseer (Sitara-i-Imtiaz) for participation in United Nations - International Search & Rescue Advisory Group (INSRAG) in pursuance of an application of Punjab Emergency Service for accreditation & external classification by the UN-INSRAG.
After approval, Pakistan will become 1st country in SAARC region to become an international partner of humanitarian networks, thus qualifying for response to disasters ie, earthquakes or any other human crisis across the globe. The Director General will participate in different meetings of UN-INSRAG from 5th to 9th February, 2018 in Geneva, Switzerland.
Dr Rizwan Naseer said that after looking at the state of helplessness of victims in collapsed buildings during 2005 Earthquake in Pakistan, the Punjab Emergency Service (Rescue 1122) established the first Disaster Response Force, which was subsequently also notified as the Provincial Disaster Response Force by the Government of the Punjab in July 2011.
However, after consultation with international partners & positive feedback, the Service had applied for accreditation by the UN-INSRAG. After completing the due process and assessments by the UN-OCHA Pakistan Office and UN-INSRAG Mentor, finally the application for external classification was accepted on 12th February 2015 for registering the Punjab Emergency Service as Search & Rescue Team of Pakistan, which shall be the first team among the SAARC countries to achieve United Nations - International search & Rescue Advisory Group Accreditation.
The Director General, Punjab Emergency Service further said that Rescue 1122 has become the leading emergency humanitarian service in Pakistan, which has rescued over 5.4 million emergency victims while maintaining its average response time of 7 minutes in all districts of Punjab.
He said that Disaster Response Force has responded to several disasters like catastrophic earthquakes and floods in Pakistan & Punjab while following the search & rescue techniques as per international standards. He further said that now we are moving a step forward to win the external classification from United Nations -INSRAG as per International Standards.
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