PESHAWAR: While authorities claim to be making efforts to create public awareness of phoning first responders, the government’s emergency service Rescue 1122 said it received over four million “irrelevant” calls in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 2023.

Details of the phone calls received by Rescue 1122 in the last year show that over 61 per cent of those calls were irrelevant leaving the helpline busy and thus, risking the lives of people in emergency situations.

People made a total of 7,139,820 calls to Rescue 1122 in 2023 and 4,392,682 of them were irrelevant, according to the data.

It also shows that Rescue 1122 received the most calls, 1,091,656, in Dera Ismail Khan district with 820,500 irrelevant calls – the highest in the province -- followed by Mardan (480,744) and Peshawar (402,987).

Official warns such callers of police action

Officials told Dawn that mostly, callers asked the first responders about weather updates, and prices of essential items, or if they could deliver fast food.

They added that the callers were warned multiple times against making unnecessary calls and were informed about the importance of the hotline.

A senior Rescue 1122 official said a decision was made about the blocking of the phone numbers of such callers but it was later withdrawn because the act could endanger the lives of those people in case of emergency situations.

When contacted, Rescue 1122 director-general Dr Khateer Ahmad said despite having shared messages on social media in order to sensitise people on importance of the emergency service’s phone numbers, people kept calling unnecessarily risking the lives of those facing emergency situations.

“If the hotlines are kept busy by irrelevant calls, the response [Rescuee1122] will definitely be late. We warn such callers of the police’s action if they repeat the act,” he said.

Section 26 of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Emergency Rescue Services Act, 2012, says that any person who willfully or without any reasonable excuse, disobeys or violates any provision of this Act, shall be deemed to have committed a bailable offence punishable with simple imprisonment for six months or with fine not exceeding rupees fifty thousand or with both.

However, no one has so far been booked for the offence.

Spokesman for Rescue 1122 Bilal Faizi told Dawn that his organisation, with the collaboration of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, found addresses of some such callers and called their parents, who first didn’t believe that their children bother the emergency service by unnecessary calls but apologised after listening to the recorded calls.

The data revealed that Rescue 1122 responded to a total of 179,111 emergency situations, including 22,931 road accidents, with most of them, 5,245, being reported in the provincial capital.

According to it, the first responders addressed 3,797 fire emergencies, including 696 in the provincial capital, and 180 incidents of building collapses, mostly in Mardan district (29) followed by Peshawar (23).

The data also showed that Rescue 1122 responded to 183 calls about explosions, including gas cylinder ones, with the highest number (38) being reported in Peshawar followed by 19 in Swat. It also “rescued” 183,376 people last year with 44,541 in Peshawar and 22,855 in Mardan.

Published in Dawn, january 1st, 2024