Waqas Afzal

Punjab Emergency Services Department Rescue-1122, Pakistan

present

The Punjab Emergency Service (Rescue 1122) is the leading emergency humanitarian service of Pakistan with infrastructure in all 36 districts of Punjab and is providing technical assistance to other provinces. Rescue 1122 has rescued millions victims of emergencies through its Emergency Ambulance, Rescue & Fire services and Community Emergency Response Teams while maintaining its average response time of 7 minutes and standards in all districts of Punjab province with an estimated population of over 100 million. The Punjab Emergency Service Act was promulgated in 2006 to provide legal cover to the Emergency Services Reforms initiated in 2004 from Lahore. Start of Rescue 1122 was necessitated after failure of repeated attempts to revitalize and modernize the old organizations mandated for emergency management. Now as a result of the performance of Rescue 1122 during emergencies and disasters in recent years, it has also been notified as the Disaster Response Force by the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) & Government of the Punjab. The District Emergency Officer is responsible for the day to day operational management and administration of the Service in the Districts under the supervision of District Coordination Officer who is also the Chairman of the District Emergency Board. The Board has become an effective organization for improving inter-departmental coordination and prevention of emergencies based on review of emergency data. The Director General who is the Chief Executive Officer of the organization is mainly responsible for overall operations,monitoring to ensure uniformity & quality amongst districts, recruitment & training, research, planning and development.