By: Deeba Shahnaz Akhter
19 years ago, Emergency Service Rescue 1122 was started as Ambulance Service in 2004 from historic city of Lahore and gradually evolved into an integrated emergency services model for South Asia. About two-decade journey of untiring efforts of Rescuers provided sense of safety to the millions of citizens of Pakistan. It was truly a humanitarian initiative to provide right to emergency care to all citizens without any discrimination. An integrated model of emergency ambulance, fire & rescue, disaster response and community emergency response teams was established under the Punjab Emergency Service Act, 2006. Today Rescue 1122 is available in all districts and tehsils of Punjab and it is being replicated in other provinces of Pakistan. One of the main reasons for success of the Service is Emergency Services Academy, which was established on modern lines with purpose-built simulators for sustainable human resource development in the field of emergency/disaster management. So far, this Academy has trained over 24,000 emergency services personnel across Pakistan, organized 12 National Rescue Challenge, 7 National CERTs/Volunteers Challenge and One SAARC Rescue Challenge. Now the Rescue Service has become the leading emergency service of South Asia after getting international certification from United Nations INSARAG in the field of Search and Rescue.
On basis of the continuous performance of the Service, the Ministry of Planning and Development Pakistan presented two Development Leadership Awards to Secretary Emergency Services Rescue 1122 Dr. Rizwan Naseer in recognition of his leadership establishing Emergency Services in Pakistan and making it the best organization by getting United Nations Certification and one award for the performances of the organization and saving millions of lives in the kinds of emergencies and disaster.
The successful model of Emergency Service Rescue 1122, Pakistan was presented in 16th Regional Consultative Committee (RCC) on invitation of Ministry of the Interior and Safety (MOIS) of the Republic of South Korea and Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC) for the financing resilient development in Asia and the Pacific region. Likewise, the model of Emergency Medical Rescue Services of Pakistan has been presented to Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Member States. Rescue 1122 extended their cooperation to promote regional cooperation for emergency preparedness and effective response especially in developing countries.
Furthermore, a Team of PEER (Program of Enhancement for Emergency Response) certified regional Instructors from Emergency Services Academy & Headquarters had also sent to Sri Lanka Military School of Engineering for capacity building of Sri Lanka in the field of emergency / disaster response. Similarly specialized trainings have been organized for participants of Tajikistan, Syria and other organizations in the Academy.
Today the Rescue Service has completed 19 years of serving to humanity. During this span of time, despite of all challenges over 13.7 million victims of emergencies were rescued, first modern Fire Rescue Service was established and responded over 218,000 fire incidents, saved worth over 634 billion losses with timely emergency response and professional firefighting, Motorbike Rescue Service set new standard of emergency response dealt over 1.7 million emergencies in 9 divisional headquarters with average response time of 4 minutes, Patient Transfer Service was provided to over 1.3 million patients from lower health facility to higher health facility. The Community Emergency Response Teams have been established in all Union Councils of Punjab to assist in management of emergencies and safety promotion. Rescue Scout Corps (RSC) has been started for training of students in educational institutions to have socially responsible youth and first aider at every home. Pak Life Saver CPR training was started to train all citizens on essential lifesaving skills to have first aider in every home. The expansion of emergency service to all tehsils and expansion of Motorbike Rescue Service to all districts was done to provide emergency services at doorsteps of the citizens.
It is pertinent to mention that all officers and employees are grateful for the support of politicians, international Organizations WHO, UNOCHA, International Emergency Team UK, Scottish Fire Service, Strathclyde Fire Service, USAID FOR PEER, Republic of Turkiye, VSO Pakistan, ICRC and Aga Khan University Karachi for providing time to time support in different fields to maintain Service standard as per international standards.
The history of Service is incomplete without the great services of Rescue Shuhada. Salute to Shaheed Rescuers for their exemplary services to serve humanity. Thanks to the Government of Pakistan for presenting Gallantry award to Shaheed Rescuers of Ghakkar Plaza Operation and Sitara-i-Imtiaz to Director General and Tamga-e-Imtiaz and Governor Award to Rescue Officers. The journey to serve humanity is still continued. May Allah give strength to all of us to maintain the standard of Service and serve humanity with same passion. Ameen
