Turkish dignitary praises performance of local emergency services

LAHORE: The Deputy Minister for Health of Turkiye, Prof Tolga Tolunay, on Saturday visited the Punjab Emergency Services Headquarters and Academy on the National Resilience Day to express solidarity with the citizens of Pakistan and particularly with families affected by the catastrophic floods.

He stated that resilience building by Pakistan by establishing the Rescue 1122, integrated Emergency Ambulance, Rescue & Fire Services and Disaster & Community Emergency Response Teams is highly commendable.

In this regard becoming the first United Nations INSARAG Certified Search and Rescue Team in South Asia is very impressive.

He was speaking at the ceremony held to observe the National Resilience Day on 8th October, 2022 at Emergency Services Academy here on Saturday.

The Secretary of the Emergency Services Department, Dr Rizwan Naseer, officers of Rescue Headquarters and Emergency Services Academy, rescuers, instructors, cadets and media personnel attended the ceremony.

Deputy Minister of Turkiye Prof Tolunay said, “I am happy to know that Rescue 1122 has rescued over 11.5 million victims of emergencies and saved losses worth over Rs580 billion by improving response time and professional fire fighting in 197,000 fire incidents.”

He also witnessed the ongoing training of medical, fire, rescue, specialized rescue and training simulators of USAR and other facilities provided in the Academy.

Earlier, DG Emergency Services Dr Rizwan Naseer thanked the Turkish delegation for visiting the Emergency Services Academy & Headquarters to commemorate National Resilience Day. He also thanked them for showing solidarity with the citizens of Pakistan and in particular the families of persons affected by the 2005 Earthquake Disaster in Pakistan.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022