Speakers at a seminar held here on Thursday in connection with 'World Civil Defence Day' have called for strengthening and expanding the civil defence role so as modern day challenges could be met in more organised manner.
The seminar was organised by Civil Defense Academy on the topic of 'Civil Defense and Security Arrangements at Workplace'.
Addressing the seminar, Commandant Civil Defense Academy, Maqbool Ahmad Chaudhry said that strengthening the role of civil defence is vital. He said that concept of the term "civil defence" appearing in article 61 of additional protocol 1 of 1977 of the Geneva Convention of 1949 should be widened beyond armed conflicts and not be limited to certain humanitarian tasks and disasters occurring in a country.
Other speakers maintained that Civil Defence should be assigned the task for all humanitarian measures aimed at safeguarding the life, property and environment from accidents and disasters of all nature. They also stressed that civil defence acting in a multi sector framework is an ideal organ for conducting the many and diverse operations for safeguarding life, property and the environment before, during and after disasters.