LAHORE: The Punjab Emergency Services (Rescue 1122) will be finalising a plan to set up ‘Urban Search and Rescue Teams’ equipped with heavy machinery and equipment to cope with the situations presently being handled by armed forces engineering wing.

The plan envisaging capacity building of Rescue 1122 staff and provision of state of the art machinery to them will be forwarded to Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif for approval and implementation in nine divisions of the province.

A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting of Rescue 1122 Director General retired Brig Dr Arshad Zia with the chief minister soon after the assassination of home minister Shuja Khanzada in a suicide attack, a source said.

He said that Dr Zia had told the chief minister that the emergency services had to seek army’s help whenever some big building collapsed or caught fire.

“The CM had asked the DG to finalise a plan and forward it to him within two months to make Rescue 1122 self-reliant,” the source said, adding that on the basis of the plan funds would also be provided to the service.

He said the service high-ups also held meetings with officials of home department and army’s engineering corps in this regard.

Meanwhile, a conference of the District Emergency Officers (DEOs) of Punjab Emergency Services concluded at Rescue 1122 academy at Thokar Niaz Baig on Monday. It resolved to get service structure implemented, establishment of Urban Search and Rescue Teams and capacity enhancement programmes to carry out swift operations and other steps to be taken for welfare of Rescue officials.

The Provincial Monitoring Officer Dr Farhan Khalid, Regional Emergency Officer, Mian Riffat Zia, Deputy Director (P&D) Faheem Ahmed Qureshi, DD (HR) Dr Fooad Shahzad Mirza, DD (Finance) Naeem Mukhtar, Head of Operations (Punjab) Ayyaz Aslam, Lahore District Emergency Officer Dr Ahmed Raza, and other officers were present.

Dr Zia said Rescue 1122 had saved more than 3.6 million people trapped in emergency situations, maintaining its average response time of seven minutes.

The service also saved valuables worth Rs185 billion, while its water rescue teams rescued more than 97, 000 people in recent floods in different districts of Punjab.

He said work was on to get service structure implemented at the earliest to boost up the morale of the rescuers.

The DG said the Rescuers would be provided facilities, including leaves, allowances, vehicles and accommodation.

Published in Dawn, October 13th , 2015

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