1,300 rescuers pass out

LAHORE : The passing-out ceremony of some 1,300 rescuers from Punjab was held at Emergency Services Academy on Saturday. Federal Minister for National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination Saira Afzal Tarrar was the Chief Guest.

Punjab Emergency Service DG, Parliamentary Secretary Asghar Ali Manda, DIG National Highway and Motorway Police Mirza Farhan Baig, National Ambulance Service College, Ireland Education Manager Prof Dr Shane Knox, Emergency Services Academy staff and rescuers were present on the ceremony.

DG Rescue congratulated the passing out rescuers on completion of their training. He said the Emergency Services Academy had trained over 20,000 rescuers since its inception. The academy had become a platform of training rescuers of all provinces of Pakistan and even the SAARC countries could get benefit from this training facility, he said.

Saira Afzal Tarrar said rescuers were the brave sons of soil, who put their lives in danger to save lives of others. She congratulated the rescuers and the whole staff of academy upon successful completion of training.

The passing-out rescuers demonstrated their professional skills of emergency management during mock exercises of deep well rescue, water rescue, firefighting, urban search and rescue, rescue from confined spaces and height.

On this occasion, Emergency Services Academy signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with National Ambulance Service College (NASC) Ireland to maintain the Emergency Service according to the international standards through third party evaluation. Under this agreement, NASC will monitor trainings of emergency medical technicians and will evaluate the courses on non-profit basis. Another MoU was signed between National Highway and Motorway Police and Punjab Emergency Service.