Lahore, the busiest and congested city of Punjab has always
been the center of attention of every government. Due to its massive population
and overcrowded roads, accidents happen on a daily basis. Lack of proper ambulance
system for the injured was a great factor of deaths in road accidents.
Newspapers were littered with such news on a daily basis but, the government
always paid a deaf ear to it. Although the people demanded it, but it was the
least priority of all governments as they were busy looting the country and
settling their families abroad.
The idea of Punjab Emergency Service commonly known as Rescue
1122 germinated when Moonis Elahi
visited foreign countries with his father to see their emergency services. When
PMLQ came into power, the need for a
rescue department was raised on the assembly floor under the Punjab Emergency
Services Act. Through legislative support and backing of Moonis Elahi, the bill
was passed and it soon became clear that Punjab would be gifted with a modern
and trustworthy life saving service. The vision was to provide timely care and
service to every person without discrimination. With a mission to contribute
towards building socially responsible, resilient and safer communities, it soon
became the top priority for PMLQ leadership.
During
his visits to foreign countries Moonis
Elahi met experts to learn about the steps required to make it flawless. Subsequently,
security experts from Austria and Australia were called to meet and discuss how
the service could be made an exception in the region. With a motive to empower
the nation and its youth in every perspective, vehicles were indigenously built
in Lahore which ended up saving millions of rupees and also created jobs. The
first phase planned was to initiate the service in 36 Districts of Punjab and
in the second phase it would be spread to all Tehsils of the province.
Moonis Elahi
emphasized in all meetings that educated youth should be recruited on merit and
be provided with proper training for induction of the service to enable them to
live up to its vision and mission. He regularly visited the Rescue 1122 training
academy to inspect training of the newly recruited staff. He watched their performance
and progress very closely and held regular discussions with stakeholders to
solve any problems that came forth. During his visits to foreign countries,
Moonis Elahi observed that the response time of an ambulance was about 15 to 20
minutes. He strongly emphasized that Rescue 1122 reach the affected persons in
less than 15 minutes.
It
was the result of Moonis Elahi's constant supervision that Rescue 1122
ambulance service was able to reduce its average response time to under 10
minutes. Until its inauguration, it became a daily routine for the authorized
staff to report at 8am at the CM house and brief the PMLQ leadership over its
progress. In 2004 Rescue 1122 was
inaugurated by Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi which,
without a doubt is a gift to the nation. Without compromising on the equipments
and the vehicles, it was soon accredited to meet all international standards
and was termed as one of the top rated emergency services in Asia.
To
date, as per the statistics given on their officialwebsite Rescue 1122 states that
it has successfully managed to save 7,83,292 people in Lahore alone and a total
of 42,98,738 people in the entire Punjab. The step-fatherly treatment meted out
by the current government of PMLN to Rescue 1122 is a great concern to Moonis
Elahi. Their vindictive approach to undermine all policies and departments set
up by PMLQ is not only hurting their credibility but also affecting safety of
the people of Punjab. By not providing proper funds, the service has been badly
affected but it still continues to serve the public with the same mission and
vision instilled in them by Moonis Elahi
and Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, the
founders of Punjab Emergency Service aka Rescue 1122.
