LAHORE: The Punjab Emergency Service (Rescue 1122) has completed 12 years of successful emergency service delivery in all 36 districts of Punjab on Friday, and during this span of time it rescued around 4.3 million victims of different emergencies. Punjab Emergency Service Director General Mian Mohsin Rasheed and Emergency Service Academy (ESA) Lahore Director General Brig (r) Amir Hamza have congratulated all rescuers, especially the pioneers, for completing 12 years of service with dedication, providing the right to timely emergency care without discrimination to millions of victims of emergencies and disasters, and proactively working for community based disaster risk reduction. Both director generals sincerely hoped that all the rescuers would always maintain the standards of this emergency service and gain prayers of the community members with hard work, commitment and dedication. Rasheed appreciated the dedication and commitment of all rescuers and acknowledged the service of all head wings and officers of emergency services academy, including all district emergency officers. He paid tribute to the martyrs of Rescue 1122 who sacrificed their lives in the line of duty without compromising on their mission of selfless service. The director general expressed hope that the rescuers would maintain the same standard of the service in all districts, and admired the performance of rescuers for rescuing over 4.3 millions victims of emergencies in 12 years while maintaining its average response time of less than seven minutes. Brig (r) Amir Hamza on the occasion said that Rescue 1122, which was just an idea that was evolved 12 years ago, has now turned into a reality of an effective system of emergency preparedness, response and prevention. He said that although an international standard emergency service was available for rescue of emergency victims; the alarming increase in the number of avoidable road traffic accidents and fire incidents necessitate the need to work together for prevention of such emergencies in order to build a safer Pakistan. He said, “We have established a state-of-the-art Emergency Services Academy in Punjab, which has become a national centre of excellence through provision of emergency services to victims of Punjab and technical assistance to other provinces of the country so that they could replicate the emergency model of Rescue 1122.”