Daily Times

LAHORE – The19th passing-out ceremony of rescuers from different districts of Punjab was held at the Emergency Services Academy here on Saturday.

The rescuers have been trained to strengthen Rescue1122 Service in Bahawalpur; Bhakkar, Dera Ghazi Khan, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Gujrat, Hafizabad, Jhang, Khanewal, Khushab, Lahore, Mandi Bahauddin, Mianwali, Multan, Layyah, Rahim Yar Khan, Rajanpur, Rawalpindi, Attock, Nankana, Sahiwal, Sargodha, Sialkot and Murree.

Speaking in the ceremony, Scottish Parliamentarian Belle Hanzala Malik said that Rescuers were brave sons of soil, who put their lives in danger to save others’ lives. He asserted that he himself witnessed excellent professionalismduring floods in Punjab, especially in southern belt in 2010, 2014 and 2015.

He also expressed his deep pleasure over successful performance training and congratulated Punjab Emergency Service Director General Dr Arshad Zia and Director General Amir Hamza along with team for their devotion and continuous struggle towards ensuring a safer Pakistan.

He appreciated the continuous support of Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif for Rescue 1122 as service continuous to expand. He said this credit goes to the Punjab government that emergency service had been extended to allover the Punjab and now the service had been launched at tehsil level.

Earlier, the Emergency Services Academy director general congratulated rescuers oncompletion of their training and thanked Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif for extension of the service to all districts of Punjab and now at tehsil level.

He further thanked Belle Hanzala for extending his sincere cooperation for establishment of modern fire service in Pakistan. Speaking on the occasion, the Punjab Emergency Service director general said that the service was successful only because of hectic efforts and training of rescuers on modern lines.

The passed out cadets demonstrated their professional skills of emergency management during mock exercises of deepwell rescue, water rescue, firefighting, urban search andrescue, rescue from confined spaces during smoke, rescue from height and medical emergency management.