KARACHI, Oct 26: In order to reactivate Civil Defence Services in all major cities of the province, a meeting was held under the chairmanship of Sindh Home Secretary Brig (retd) Ghulam Mohammad Mohtaram on Wednesday.

The meeting was aimed at giving guidelines regarding new initiatives for efficient handling of civilian disaster management, which was urgently needed in wake of devastating earthquake in northern parts of Pakistan and Azad Kashmir.

Director Civil Defence gave a detailed presentation about present state of preparedness and highlighted problems hampering up-gradation and expansion of civil defence facilities and services.

The home secretary stressed the need for streamlining command and control mechanism and establishing a permanent system of training and awareness of civil society enabling people to cope with any untoward incident. The best preparation for any disaster could be made in peacetime, he added.

He instructed the civil defence director to make a list of essential equipment needed as a first response in emergency along with cost estimates for making necessary procurement.

He told the meeting that DCOs had been directed to strengthen and activate warden posts in their respective districts and increase training facilities to achieve objective of efficient respond to eventualities or natural disaster.—PPI