PMML Renews Pledge Of 25 Rescue Centres Two Months After Launch

WAZIRABAD: The Pakistan Markazi Muslim League (PMML) on Tuesday has again promised to set up rescue centres in 25 disaster-prone districts, two months after it first announced the plan, though it has still not said where the centres will be or when they will open.

Chaudhry Shafiqur Rehman Warraich, who heads the party’s Khidmat-e-Khalq (public service) department, renewed the pledge at a rescue and safety workshop held to mark the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction. He said the centres would be fitted with modern rescue equipment and local residents trained in emergency response.

Advance preparation, sound planning and public awareness could sharply reduce the loss of life and property in natural disasters, Warraich told reporters. The department wanted to move from relief after a disaster to preparedness before one, he said, by building a pool of trained volunteers and stronger response capacity in neighbourhoods.

The one-day workshop and equipment exhibition, organised by the party-linked Muslim Rescue Mission at the Wazirabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry, drew traders, social workers and residents. They were trained in first aid, basic life support, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, fire safety, firefighting and road safety, and shown how to use modern rescue gear.

Wazirabad lies on the Chenab, one of three rivers that burst their banks in the 2025 floods, when more than 300 people died in Punjab and at least 4.7 million were affected, according to official figures compiled at the time.

Warraich said Muslim Rescue Mission volunteers had rescued 171,382 people with 138 boats during those floods and housed displaced families in tent villages offering food, medical care and classes for children. The figures could not be independently verified.

He said the group would work with the authorities to train volunteers and raise awareness, adding that disaster management required government, rescue agencies, citizens, businesses and social organisations to act together. The Punjab government is separately extending Rescue 1122 fire cover to 39 more tehsils.