Passing-out ceremony of rescuers: Minister floats idea of ‘Rescue Pakistan’ service

LAHORE: Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Sardar Ayaz Sadiq said on Saturday that there should be a single rescue service for the entire country called ‘Rescue Pakistan’.

“I wish instead of Punjab Rescue, Sindh Rescue and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Rescue, there could be a Pakistan Rescue for the entire country,” he said.

“I also wish to call Dr Rizwan Naseer in my office to give a briefing... so that after sharing of life-saving practices across the world more lives could be saved through better coordination.”

While addressing the passing out ceremony of Rescuers trained for Sindh and Gilgit Baltistan, here at Emergency Services Academy (Rescue 1122), Sardar Ayaz Sadiq said that he is happy to represent the Prime Minister in the Emergency Services Academy.

The role of Rescue 1122 in providing a sense of safety to society is self-explanatory. Rescuers are putting their lives in danger in emergencies such as fire incidents, smoke, floods, drowning incidents, building collapses, etc to save the lives of others, he added. Pakistan Rescue Team was also among the first team, which responded to the Turkiye Earthquake, and because of its performance, we as Pakistani feel honored today, he added.

Addressing the ceremony, provincial Health Minister Dr. Javed Akram said, "I consider myself a part of the Rescue 1122 team and I congratulate Dr. Rizwan Naseer for providing the best training to the cadets of other provinces. I am sure that the passing-out cadets will exhibit their professional skills to save the lives of emergency victims in their respective areas."

Earlier, Secretary of Emergency Services Dr Rizwan Naseer also briefed about the performance of Emergency Services which includes rescuing over 12 million victims of emergencies since its inception in October 2004, the Fire Rescue Service has also responded to over 200,000 fire emergencies and saved losses worth over Rs. 606 billion with professional firefighting on modern lines.

The Emergency Services Academy provided training to over 24,000 rescuers from all provinces of Pakistan and after getting UN INSARAG Classification, PRT has the capacity to respond even to international disasters.

The passed-out cadets demonstrated their professional skills in emergency management during mock exercises of deep-well rescue, water rescue, firefighting, urban search & rescue, rescue from confined space, and rescue from height.

In the end, Chief Guest gave away awards to the best-performing Rescuers.

Secretary, Emergency Services took oath from 381 passed out Rescuers.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023