December 02, 2007	Sunday	Ziqa’ad 21, 1428

MULTAN, Dec 1: The Punjab government has ‘linked’ the fire brigade staff with the district emergency service (Rescue 1122) control rooms across the province much to the annoyance of the firefighters and allied staff.

The firefighters, who had previously been working under the district administrations, cite a host of reasons for a sense of insecurity they have been experiencing after the merger notification.

According to the notification No DS (M-II) CMS/701-47/, issued on Nov 16 by the chief minister’s personal secretary G.M. Sikandar, “the existing staff of fire services of the local governments in Punjab, which is physically fit for the field duty, or officers may be attached to the Punjab Emergency Service (Rescue 1122) and the remaining staff may be absorbed in other departments of local governments or retired/given golden handshakes if they so desire that is optional”.

The Rescue 1122 service was established under the Punjab Emergency Service Act 2006 to fulfill the reforms and the latest step had been taken under the chief minister’s vision of safer Punjab. “The chief minister has desired that the control of fire brigade should be linked with the district emergency control rooms and handed over to the emergency service with immediate effect for better management of emergencies”, read the official document.

The emergency service has been established in Lahore, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Bahawalpur, Dera Ghazi Khan, Rahim Yar Khan, Sahiwal, Gujranwala, Sialkot, Sargodha and Murree and more cities are being covered by and by.

There is a capacity of 129 employees in Multan fire brigade, but the staff of 120 is performing its duty and nine seats are vacant. According to the fire brigade staff, the government’s decision was in violation of the services rules and bound to land them in financial straits.

Syed Talib Hussain Pervaiz, the All-Punjab Fire Service Federation convener, said according to the services rules an employee could perform his duty for 25 years and if his age was less than 60 years he could continue his service till that age.

He said the government was going to fire all those employees who were performing their duties for more than 25 years but had not attained the age of 60. Many an experienced hand would be fired without any incentive, he said.

He said fire brigade was a technical department and its staff had got training and obtained diplomas to fight fire while the rescue staff had only theoretical knowledge and insufficient training. Working under the less experienced and less skilled people would be highly unjust for the fire brigade.

Established before partition, he said, the department earlier worked under the Civil Defence Department but later its charge was handed over to the municipal committees. With the introduction of the local-government system, the charge was handed over to the town and tehsil municipal administrations and then to the district governments.

The spokesman said the department was working very well and there was no need to attach it with the emergency service. And if the government was bent upon doing so, he said, it should at least understand the problems of the fire brigade staff.

He said the employees -– even those who have served for well over two decades — were worried about their future because the government had not made any announcement regarding the salaries, pensions, gratuity and other dues.

Those who were shifted from municipal committees to the city district government were already facing problems. Since the appointments in the Rescue 1122 were done at the provincial level, most staff did not belong to Multan and was not aware of the city locations. In case of an accident they would fail to reach the spot in time, was what the official said while arguing against the measure.

He said they couldn’t even move a court of law because of the government’s control over it.

District Officer (Civil Defence) Shahid Pervez confirmed receiving the notification, but said he had no idea how the government would manage the matter because he had the charge of fire brigade only which was transferred to him from town authorities.

District Coordination Officer Sattar A. Sheikh was not available for comment.