Victims of earthquake remembered

LAHORE: On directions of the Punjab Emergency Service Director General Dr Rizwan Naseer ‘National Resilience Day’ was commemorated across province in remembrance of the victims of catastrophic earthquake disaster of 8th October, 2005 in northern areas of Pakistan.

Rescue Punjab DG Dr Rizwan Naseer prayed for victims and expressed his solidarity with earthquake victims and their families. He also expressed grief over despondent demises of thousands those who lost their precious lives and properties in the earthquake of 2005.

He asserted that implementation of fire safety provisions notified by Pakistan Engineering Council and Community Safety Programme can help in building disaster resilient communities in Pakistan.

He expressed these views in a special ceremony held at Rescue Command & Control Centre, Ferozepur Road, here Monday and emphasised that one million Rescue scout shall be registered and trained under community safety programme for developing resilient Punjab.

Furthermore, a central awareness walk was also organised by District Lahore started from Command and Control Centre, Ferozepur Road to Shama Chowk. An awareness walk was led by Emergency Services Director General Dr Rizwan Naseer and District Emergency Officer, Lahore Shahid Waheed Qamar and other senior emergency officers from headquarters, Emergency Services Academy, District Lahore and a large number of Rescue scouts participated in it to aware public about safety by distributing pamphlets.

Speaking on the occasion, the DG said that after establishment of Special Urban Search & Rescue Teams at divisional level of the province, service has enough capacity to respond to any untoward incident as compared to past, adding that such incidents also provide us an opportunity of capacity building; therefore, we should focus on developing our systems to prevent future disasters.